Bitku Blog

The Mission
Not too long ago, a SEAL platoon was given the task of providing information about an enemy military installation. To plan this mission, the platoon worked backward from the final objective,transmitting the target information from the field.
The first question was, when was information about the base needed? Moving backward, when did the [...]

The Mission
SEALs deploy in response to potential emergencies. However, it’s rare for a SEAL platoon to be put together with a single specific operation in mind. SEAL platoons are formed up to 2 years before they deploy to a forward base from which to conduct operations. This is because, in between forming up and [...]

The Mission
The task here is to decide whether all the equations you’ve done so far justify risking the happiness,health, and lives of those who depend on you. You’re actually already risking their lives. You may just not realize it. Take shooting practice, for example. Every time you send commandos off to practice shooting, you’re [...]

The Mission
This is where you decide what is the least risky way to accomplish the mission. A nighttime parachute insertion through triple jungle canopy might not definitively destroy your chances of success, but it will probably hurt them. On the other hand, a broken outboard engine will probably not affect a rubber boat insertion, [...]

The Mission
When Special Forces commandos attempted to rescue U.S prisoners from the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” prison during the Vietnam War, the operation was conducted almost without a flaw. The commandos trained in great secrecy for weeks in advance. During the raid itself, the commando team quickly assaulted and took control of the prison. U.S. [...]

The Mission
A few years ago, Congress handed the Navy a new class of coastal patrol boats that were built, in part, in order to create jobs in a certain congressional district. They were 170 feet long, which was considerably larger and more comfortable than the small commando boats that SEALs were used to. They [...]

The Mission
I once repeatedly proposed to a battle group commander that we conduct a submarine-launched SEAL operation somewhere in the Middle East. At the time, we had deployed a SEAL platoon nearby that was capable of launching from a submarine. It killed me to see them not being utilized.
They spent their time target [...]

The Mission
Following September 11, my boss in my new civilian job asked if there was any chance that I would be called back into the Navy. I said, “Not a chance.” I considered myself too old and with too many miles. A couple of weeks later, I received a phone call, walked into my [...]

The Mission
During the first year of military strikes in Afghanistan following September 11, ordnance known commonly as smart bombs was the weapon system of choice for U.S. air platforms during ground assault and ground support missions. Despite their relative sophistication compared to conventional iron bombs, however, smart bombs could not simply be released from [...]

The Mission
Sometimes even the best?trained commandos can’t own part of an operation.
Don’t count too much on owning the Riverine operation in Colombia if you’re climbing frozen waterfalls in Norway. Don’t be afraid to reach outside your box or above your current level, but recognize that boundaries exist. A sniper in Chile wouldn’t expect [...]

The Mission
Right now, an Iranian submarine might be near the Strait of Hormuz, in a position to threaten a major commercial shipping lane. How might this problem be perceived?
Is the problem that the submarine can potentially sink merchant vessels? Is the problem that the submarine intends to sink merchant vessels? What if the problem [...]

The Mission  
In 1991, during the Gulf War, a mid-level SEAL officer pushed forward a unique plan that had the  potential to significantly affect the direction of the war. According to this plan, SEALs would infiltrate  behind enemy lines and begin an assault aimed at diverting Iraqi military units from the front. Such a  commando [...]

‘I suppose that if you are going to grow in wisdom you need the humility to learn from others,’ reflected the young chief executive.
‘Yes, your teachers are all around you, not least at work or in your family. At the right time and place you must be open to what they really think of [...]

‘That sounds like an act of faith to me,’ commented the young chief executive.
‘It is the faith you will find in a true leader. In Ordway Tead’s The Art of Leadership (1935), a article my father gave me when I was a boy, the author defines a leader’s faith as “an active effort to [...]

‘That too can be put to the test. When the expectancy of success suddenly falls or gradually fades – usually because of unpredictable forces coming into play – then it is important for the leader not to succumb to the temptation of despair. For if he or she does, it will spread like a forest [...]

‘Who in your opinion are the greatest leaders?’ asked the young chief executive.
‘Those who undergo the severest tests and still stand their ground.’
‘Then I am not sure I want to be one,’ he laughed. ‘Seriously, I expected you to name some names. Can you give me an example of what you have in [...]

‘So the Three-Circle Model still serves, but the level of understanding and engagement has to be deeper?’
‘That is how I see it. A leader with such a deep understanding – however intuitive – will be able to sense the inspired moment, that window of opportunity that opens up briefly where, if he or she [...]

‘The individual circle used to be populated in my mind by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – Physiological, Safety, Social, Self-Esteem and Self-Actualization,’ said the young chief executive.
‘And now?’
‘I don’t see people anymore as self-centred beings intent on meeting their own needs, be they the “lower ” ones or some form of self- fulfilment [...]

‘That takes me to the TEAM circle,’ continued the young chief executive. ‘What stands out to me much more clearly is the importance of not just teamwork but also team spirit. The spirit of a group seems to have all the characteristics of an individual’s spirit but writ large.’
‘Yes, it’s what the French call [...]

‘Already we have explored a large territory,’ began the young chief executive, ‘and I am aware that I now have to put it all into practice in the next five years. My concern at the moment is whether or not I shall be able to remember it all! I know that I shall have the [...]

‘But surely great soldiers would stand their ground or continue to advance, with or without leaders?’
‘All great soldiers are potential leaders if the call comes to them to lead. If the whole regiment is reduced to two privates, one will lead the other.’
‘Such an army must be almost invincible.’
‘No, it will lose [...]

‘I hasten to add that I regard this as an assumption, no more. You cannot prove it.’
‘But surely it can be falsified. Just think of all the people who display anything but greatness. If we began to catalogue all the forms of the littleness of human nature we should be here for aeons,’ commented [...]

‘By contrast, leaders are called for where change is dominant, where the climate is dynamic rather than static. Change can always be expressed in the metaphorical language of a journey. You are where you are now; you do not know where you will be tomorrow, but you know it will not be here – if [...]

‘Perhaps we can begin with a summary of where we are,’ began the young chief executive. ‘First we identified the key question: why is it that one person is accepted as a leader rather than another? The three “paths up the mountain” to answering the question were the:

QUALITIES Approach – the contingent and generic [...]

‘To challenge someone – to make a demand as if of right – implies the exercise of authority of an unusual kind,’ mused the young chief executive. ‘If the demand came from a leader, then he or she must have that kind of authority. He or she must be able to ask people not to [...]

‘But are they not put off if the task is impossible?’ I counter-questioned.
‘Of course. So there is a fine balance between what is far from easy and what is just plain impossible. Man can get to the moon on a space rocket but we cannot land on the sun.’
‘That would certainly be an [...]

‘Vision is a much overused word nowadays, and I tend to avoid it if I can. Even pedestrian goals or objectives – sometimes merely ambitious intentions – are pretentiously presented as visions. Having said that, there is in fact quite a strong link between leadership and vision. Not surprising really, because leading in front on [...]

What is the relation between TASK in your diagram and PURPOSE?’ asked the young chief executive.
‘As I mentioned task is just a general word signifying something that needs to be done. It does, however, usually suggest a limited, particular or non-recurring piece of work, or a circumscribed or short- term undertaking, whether voluntary or [...]

‘The value of truth seems to be equally important. You may recall that when we talked about integrity as a leadership quality that makes people trust you the importance of truth as conceived to be something outside oneself, something to which one owned a primary allegiance, emerged,’ I replied.
‘In what sense can a task [...]

‘There is an important distinction there,’ I said. ‘If I can use a personal example, after school my generation had to do two years of military conscription which in Britain was called National Service (originally a wartime phrase coined by Winston Churchill for civilians enlisted in the armed forces and applied by him to the [...]

‘People, then, are spiritual human beings. Because we have a spirit we are capable of being inspired. We look for meaning and purpose. Our spirit is active or dynamic, so change, forward movement and journeys attract us at a deep level. What I suggest we explore next is the kind of task that is capable [...]