Executive Leadership Quotes

“To our nation’s principals and superintendents, where hides your series of leadership talks. And why? I find your performance lackluster at best. For the love of God, pick up Alfie Kohn’s book, which was published over three decades ago, and do something about it. Be better. You should foster, facilitate, not gatekeep. Demand excellence over the entirety of your school grounds from start to finish of every single school day. Excellence, and nothing less. Not for our children’s future. For their now.”
― Miles Garrett, Executive Leadership: A Warfighter's Perspective

“Adulthood, by the way, needs to be taught. More so modeled. Exemplified. It takes care and effort to develop our boys into men, our girls into women, our gender-ambiguous and gender-fluid children into adults. They, too, sing America. As a society, we do a damn poor job of this. Our national discourse repels children. And why? Our workforce drags its feet. Community playgrounds stand appreciably worse than those of a country like New Zealand. National food standards poor. Educational standards low. Dwindling interest in the arts, architecture, fashion, reading for its own sake. The near unanimous acceptance of dressing down, and the verbal dressings down we give to anyone who bothers dressing up. Widespread disregard for personal appearance. Bowling alone. Absence of dialog on history, philosophy, culture. Highbrow these are not. They are modes of civilization, taught to us by our forebears.”
― Miles Garrett, Executive Leadership: A Warfighter's Perspective

“The country today bears striking similarity to the days leading up to Pearl Harbor. Our workforce drags aslumber. The primary focus of the majority of the national workforce prioritizes maximizing time off and contributing as little as required. Always in pursuit of that external motivation. Experiencing resentment rather than satisfaction. Why does it have to be that way? Why does it take a crisis to improve ourselves collectively? And what about on a submarine? Why does it take a war order to recognize the reality of action before consequence?”
― Miles Garrett, Executive Leadership: A Warfighter's Perspective

“I have been a member of and inspected dozens of commands in my military tenure. Unit morale is always readily detectable. Morale posts itself front and center to experienced organizational leaders and fresh recruits alike. Does that have anything to do with a unit's inherent limitations? Absolutely not. Those units are comprised of personnel cut from the same cloth as those of others. The difference is inspired leadership. It takes inspired executive leadership to foster healthy organizational cultures.
Too often, leadership is assumed rather than considered. Implied rather than piloted. It takes thoughtful communication to develop the potential of those under one's charge. Organizational climates require molding, lest unhealthy ones smolder unchecked. Leadership properly executed is a calculated act. There are thousands of ways to skin this cat, but one certainty is that the skinning should be surgical.”
― Miles Garrett, Executive Leadership: A Warfighter's Perspective

“I once heard someone describe the Fall of Man as an allegory depicting humankind’s choice of knowledge over happiness. From time to time I catch wisps of this allegorical candle. Its fragrance so false yet no less real and tall. A fragrance like the middle passage, meant, nay, demanded to bear remembrance. Like Hill’s vulnerable soul deserving to be woken gently. Somehow still forgotten. The Fall of Man is chestnut only in its modern manner of telling, only in its mistranslation upon insisted. Where hides that in our national discourse? And why? Could someone please teach my children the great and conflicted nature of King David, and what was the source of Solomon’s wisdom? What of Job? Ruth? These lessons passed through time shall not pass with us. Au contraire, through us they shall pass. And yet still I struggle to convey these past lessons within the confines of my household.”
― Miles Garrett, Executive Leadership: A Warfighter's Perspective