Lee Ellis's Blog, page 5
July 18, 2025
Leading with Honor Wisdom for Today, July 18, 2025
���You don���t need to give up who you are, what you have and you don���t need to reinvent yourself.�� Rather, you augment your strengths by adapting new behaviors that will make you more effective.��� ��� Lee Ellis
#courage #leadership #accountability #employeeengagement #resilience #teamdevelopment #buildingculture #keynotespeaker
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July 17, 2025
New Interview on the Creativity Boost Podcast
In the Creativity Boost Podcast, Lee shares his wisdom and experience on helping others learn how to create and publish their own stories and experiences. This podcast���s creator and host, Iredafe Owolabi, calls it Authorpreneurship. Please watch ���
#courage #leadership #accountability #employeeengagement #resilience #teamdevelopment #buildingculture #keynotespeaker
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July 16, 2025
3 Quick Tips to Preserve Freedom Through Responsibility
America has its flaws, but we are still a people uniquely blessed with liberty, opportunity, and a calling to lead with purpose and honor. And in times like these, when the moral compass of our culture seems to spin wildly, we must pause and ask: How are we preserving the freedom we’ve inherited?
Freedom without responsibility is a mirage. It erodes character, breeds chaos, and slowly suffocates the values that built our nation. The work ethic seems to be fading. Ownership of actions is becoming more rare. Excuses have become easier than excellence, but it doesn���t have to be this way.
If you���re here, reading this, it���s likely because you already value responsibility. But I���m challenging you to take the next step and help others rise to the standard. Here���s how you can be a catalyst:
Start with personal reflection. Look inward. Where have you stumbled in your responsibilities? What did you learn? How did you grow? These moments are the fire that forges wisdom. Teach the next generation. In times past, hard work and discipline were a part of daily life. Today, too many kids grow up without chores, without challenge, and without consequences. That must change. Parents, you are the first and most important leadership model. Parents need to work with teachers to support and collaborate on learning lessons about responsibility and accountability. Have the hard conversations. At work. At home. In your community. Talk about what responsibility really means. Set clear expectations. Offer support. And don���t shy away from accountability���it���s not punishment; it���s love with structure.
Let people know they matter. That their role is vital. That there���s help if they need it���and consequences if they walk away from it. Lead with honor, and engage with accountability. Please post your comments and wisdom below, too. LE
You can also read and watch the entire blog on this topic – “Celebrate Freedom with Fire in Your Heart���And a Call to Responsibility”
Engage and Align Your Team This Summer
Thousands of leaders and teams are already using the Courageous Accountability Model to manage team communication and decisions.��We offer three options–choose the one that best fits your objectives and goals:
Personal Study
Read the award-winning book, Engage with Honor: Building a Culture of Courageous Accountability, to learn and apply this model.
Purchase in the Online Store
Purchase on Amazon
Group Self-Study Program
The Engage with Honor Training Guide provides 10 self-guided lessons that you and your team can study together.
Purchase in the Online Store
Purchase the book and training together and save 30%
Group Online Study Course
Many leaders don���t feel qualified to conduct training, and it���s expensive. The Courageous Accountability Development Course, is an online platform using the latest, real-time collaborative learning technology to ensure the best learning environment possible.
Learn More and watch a sample interview
Request a complimentary course demo
The post 3 Quick Tips to Preserve Freedom Through Responsibility appeared first on Leading With Honor��.
July 15, 2025
Giving Back – Air Warrior Courage Foundation
If you���re looking for a nonprofit to support, please check out one of Leading with Honor���s favorite nonprofit organizations, The Air Warrior Courage Foundation. It was formed by military aviators to ���care for our own,��� their mission and focus is on active duty, guard, reserve, and retired military personnel and their families needing financial assistance for medical, educational, and other extraordinary expenses not covered by other military, veterans���, or charitable institutions.
Please learn more about their fantastic work at airwarriorcourage.org
The post Giving Back – Air Warrior Courage Foundation appeared first on Leading With Honor��.
July 14, 2025
Coaching Clip – How to Serve and Lead People with Freedom and Independence
In this month���s 5-minute coaching clip, Lee takes a page from our annual Independence Day celebration to help leaders serve and lead their people with freedom and independence. Too often, leaders forget the considerate actions of responsibility and accountability as critical ingredients for personal and organizational growth and health. Lee offers his advice and experience on how to do it the right way.��������������
You can also read the entire coaching blog on this topic – “How to Serve and Lead People with Freedom and Independence”��
Engage and Align Your Team This Summer
Thousands of leaders and teams are already using the Courageous Accountability Model to manage team communication and decisions.��We offer three options–choose the one that best fits your objectives and goals:
Personal Study
Read the award-winning book, Engage with Honor: Building a Culture of Courageous Accountability, to learn and apply this model.
Purchase in the Online Store
Purchase on Amazon
Group Self-Study Program
The Engage with Honor Training Guide provides 10 self-guided lessons that you and your team can study together.
Purchase in the Online Store
Purchase the book and training together and save 30%
Group Online Study Course
Many leaders don���t feel qualified to conduct training, and it���s expensive. The Courageous Accountability Development Course, is an online platform using the latest, real-time collaborative learning technology to ensure the best learning environment possible.
Learn More and watch a sample interview
Request a complimentary course demo
The post Coaching Clip – How to Serve and Lead People with Freedom and Independence appeared first on Leading With Honor��.
July 11, 2025
Leading with Honor Wisdom for Today, July 11, 2025
���We all know the difference between right and wrong. But living it? That requires grit, commitment, and the kind of self-leadership that demands daily courage and reflection.��� – Lee Ellis
#courage #leadership #accountability #employeeengagement #resilience #teamdevelopment #buildingculture #keynotespeaker
The post Leading with Honor Wisdom for Today, July 11, 2025 appeared first on Leading With Honor��.
July 10, 2025
Listen to Summer Stories of Resilient Relationships!
“Captured by Love” ��� Where War Meets Romance, and Resilience Sparks Passion 
Get ready for a gripping audio experience that will stir your heart and inspire your soul.
In this award-winning audiobook, masterfully narrated by Michael Orenstein, journey through the unforgettable real-life love stories of 20 Vietnam War POWs���told by Former POW Lee Ellis and relationship expert Greg Godek.
Some couples defied the odds���holding onto love through years of silence and uncertainty.
Some wives sparked a movement that changed U.S. foreign policy.
Five heroes came home single���and met the women who would change their lives forever.
From gut-wrenching separation to joyful reunions, from quiet courage to passionate devotion, Captured by Love is more than a book���it’s a tribute to enduring love in the face of unthinkable trials.
Now streaming on Audible, Apple Books, Google Play, and your favorite audiobook platforms, or go to POWRomance.com.
Because real love isn���t just romantic���it���s revolutionary. Here’s a sample –��
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July 7, 2025
Friend and Fellow POW, Smitty Harris, Flies West on July 6th
Retired Air Force fighter-pilot Col. Carlyle ���Smitty��� Harris (who had received the nickname ���Smitty��� in grade school), has passed and flown to heaven. Smitty was one of longest held POWs and his capture and subsequent imprisonment during the Vietnam War were documented in his autobiography, ���Tap Code.��� He was 96 and died while in hospice care on July 6, 2025.
Harris, originally from the small agricultural village of Preston, Maryland, was 36 years old with a wife, two young daughters and a third baby on the way when his plane was shot down over Vietnam on April 4, 1965. He was the sixth American Prisoner of War captured in North Vietnam and would spend nearly eight years in the prison camps around Hanoi.
Memories of Our POW Experience
He had been a POW for more than two years when I arrived, but we lived in the same camps for the next five years and we were cellmates in Hoa Loa (the Hanoi Hilton) for almost two years. When you are locked in a room with someone 24 hours a day for more than 500 days you get to know them well. Smitty was one of the finest people I���ve ever known in my life. He was strong and courageous, but also very kind and humble.
He played a critical role in our communication and survival during that time. Smitty brought with him into captivity one piece of knowledge that was the key to our sanity and survival���the Tap Code. Aircrews know Morse Code, a series of dots and dashes, but you can���t make a dash when your only means of communication is tapping on a wall. Communication was the key element of our resistance to our communist captors, so the Tap Code made a significant impact on our ability to resist, survive, and return with honor.
A Critical POW Moment for Smitty
In the early years of our captivity, I remember when he and Fred Flom (1st Lt, USAF) were fighting losing battles with a debilitating gastro-intestinal disease because of poor treatment. We were in three buildings at the Son Tay camp, about 27 miles Northwest of Hanoi. Through a crack in our door, we watched Smitty and Fred stagger across the courtyard to the bathhouse, their emaciated bodies reminiscent of survivors of Auschwitz and Bataan. Smitty���s weight when captured was around 160 pounds, but over the years had dwindled to about 130. Now he was down to about 90. Fred���s had dropped from about 140 down to about 110.
Our senior officer sent everyone in the camp a message to pressure our captors to help Smitty and Fred.�� This was the first time we had ever put strong, persistent pressure on the V. Every time they opened a cell door, we confronted them, ��� If you don���t get these men some medical help, we are going to revolt and your bosses in Hanoi will�� be very upset.��� It worked. They took them out to get diagnosed and some medicine and slowly they began to improve.
A Funny POW Moment for Smitty
Two years later, (1971) we were back in the Hanoi Hilton in a large cell with 55 guys and we celebrated Smitty���s 6th anniversary of being a POW.�� Several of our cellmates worked together to create a play in the style of the famous TV show of the `1950s called ���This is Your Life.��� It was hilarious and highlighted some of the funny and strange things that had happened in Smitty���s life.
After returning from the Vietnam War, Smitty retired as a colonel, earned a law degree, managed a large law firm, and eventually retired again.
More About Smitty’s Sense of Humor
The following excerpt from our book, Captured by Love: Inspiring True Romance Stories from Vietnam POWs, sums up this wonderful funny friend and brother that I will miss very much ���
���Several factors contributed to Smitty���s surviving the POW camps: his faith and religious beliefs, his family, and his cultural background. Oh, and humor.
���Referring to the ���Hanoi Hilton,��� where he spent most of those years, Smitty said, ���The Hanoi Hilton: What an awful place! Room service, food, and accommodations were terrible!��� After a pause he observed, ���Humor helped me keep a semblance of my former self.���
���For example, Smitty���s first letter to Louise included this: ���I have started daily exercises and am sure that when I am released, I can get a job on TV with an exercise program, and I can be the idol of a million American women���what do you think of that?���
���Humor kept all the guys��� morale alive during our captivity: ���Humor also keeps Louise and me connected. We���re very self-entertaining; our shared experiences and inside jokes help keep the spark of love alive. Louise says, ���He just cracks me up all the time!������
Smitty���we honor and remember you today for your life and impact that you���ve made on others. You���ve flown west, but we look forward to seeing you again soon.
LE
Reference Articles:
The Daily Journal – “Smitty Harris, POW and Author of The Tap Code, does at 96”
Air Education and Training Command – “Resilience on the Homefront: A POW Wife’s Story”
Purchase his book – Tap Code: The Epic Survival Tale of a Vietnam POW and the Secret Code That Changed Everything
Download Their POW Romance Story – Download a free copy of Smitty and Louise’s Romance Story from Captured by Love��
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July 6, 2025
Leadership History Lesson for July 6th
On this day in leadership history in 1945, U.S. President Truman signed an order creating the Medal of Freedom. It���s the highest civilian award of the United States, and it recognizes people who have made “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, or world peace, or cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.���
What���s the leadership lesson? Honorable leaders are always thinking of ways to honor the people around them in small or large ways. Stay creative and attentive in this regard!
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July 4, 2025
Happy Independence Day!
���Lies chip away at our freedom as individuals and as a society. Truth is the cornerstone for liberty, justice and a prosperous, free society. We should make it our highest priority.” ��� Lee Ellis
Happy Independence Day from Leading with Honor!��
#courage #leadership #accountability #employeeengagement #resilience #teamdevelopment #buildingculture #keynotespeaker
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