Moments in Leadership David B. Armstrong

Please consider supporting this project on Supercast: Moments In Leadership Supercast 
 
Want to support the project AND look cool at the gym or when you take your blouse off for a working party? Grab a cool tee shirt here from Mission Essential Gear, where every order supports this project AND donates back to Patrol Base Abbate 
Relevant Resources 
What is Moments in Leadership?
Moments in Leadership is a podcast where you will hear firsthand about the careers of senior military leaders as they share their unique and individual experiences. Moments in Leadership will immerse you in real-life stories where you will learn about the challenging situations these accomplished leaders faced and discover the lessons they learned early in their careers that were the most influential in developing their overall leadership style. 
 
Conceptualized by a group of friends who served together as young officers in the early to mid-1990s sitting around a firepit telling funny leadership stories, Moments in Leadership is designed to provide some relatable context to the formal leadership training leaders of all ranks and services receive throughout their military careers through the power of storytelling.
 
Why Should You Support this project? 
I realize all of the leaders who listen to the episodes are at different levels of life, and my goal is to be able to have this project remain free and available to anyone who wants it and your donations help go towards that. Your donations go towards offsetting my costs of producing high-quality episodes. Additionally, since this is a part-time hobby project for me, I'm forced to outsource a good deal of work to others to maintain a regular publishing schedule. Your donations help offset these costs as well. 
 
Check out my Supercast site and see if any level is a good fit for helping: 
 
Connect with Us:
Visit the Moments in Leadership website: 
Follow us on Instagram: 
Follow us on Twitter: 
Email us: themiloffice@gmail.com
 
Other Podcasts Interviews with David B. Armstrong
Scuttlebutt Podcast EP 38
Former Action Guys Podcast EP 161 
Former Action Guys Podcast EP 141 
Former Action Guys Podcast EP 60 
Former Action Guys Podcast EP 54 
 
About the Host:
David B. Armstrong, CFA, is President and Co-Founder of Monument Wealth Management, an independent wealth management firm he started in 2008 in Alexandria, Va. David received his BA from the University of South Carolina in Government & International Relations and his MBA at the University of South Carolina's Moore School of Business in International Finance. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant through the Navy ROTC program and served on Active Duty in the Marine Corps from 1990-1997 as an Artillery Officer and then received a secondary MOS as a Tank Officer. He re-entered the Selected Marine Corps Reserves in 2003 and served in several billets across the Artillery, Tank, and Light Armored Reconnaissance communities. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in late 2018.

In this episode of Moments in Leadership, U.S. Marine Corps Colonel Paul Merida and host David B. Armstrong discuss the early parts of his life and career, concluding with his time commanding one of the ‘Crown Jewels’ of the Marine Corps, a Marine Expeditionary Unit. His insights provide useful lessons about how to manage disparate organizations over distance and differences.
Leaders are sometimes thrown into positions where they have the training, but the sudden onset of responsibility hits them unexpectedly. Colonel Merida speaks to his initial leadership baptism when he was called off leave after initial infantry officer training and thrown into Embassy reinforcement operations in Libya with a short-called-up unit itself. The lessons of setting the tone and creating a climate of discipline are useful to people thrown into a leadership position without due warning. 
While everyone fashions themselves as the next great General or titan of industry, sometimes, perhaps more often than we want to think about, there exist those leaders who, through a misunderstanding of the environment, create a toxic environment that makes it hard to lead in. Understanding how to lead in this environment, and create a safe operational space for their subordinates. 
Managing and leading are different aspects of command in the Marine Corps. Colonel Merida addresses the difficulties of planning versus executing a plan, the different qualities a person in a leadership position needs to have, and the various intangibles a unit needs versus the bulletized tangibles. 
The ability to run massive, personnel and distance-based, organizations is probably the most unique aspect Colonel Merida brings to the Moments in Leadership podcast. Having the ability to harness different units, personnel, ships, and operations within a cohesive structure is part of building a climate, focusing on the basics, and creating a culture of learning. Colonel Merida overall provides a nuanced, unfiltered, and non-flinching look at leadership, followership, and teaching that have culminated in an illustrious career. 
Thank you for supporting the project (below)
 
Please consider supporting this project on Supercast: Moments In Leadership Supercast 
 
Want to support the project AND look cool at the gym or when you take your blouse off for a working party? Grab a cool tee shirt here from Mission Essential Gear, where every order supports this project AND donates back to Patrol Base Abbate 
Relevant Resources & Other Mentioned Episodes:
LtGen David Bellon and the 20th Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, SgtMaj Carlos Ruiz – A Command Team Briefing to Alpha Company TBS 2022 (themiloffice.com) 
Moments in Leadership - David G. Bellon, LtGen, USMC (themiloffice.com)
Moments in Leadership - Major General Dale Alford, USMC (themiloffice.com)
MajGen Dale Alford: "I Was a Student in AWS, Got Pulled Out, and Sent to Combat" - A Follow-up to Episode 14 (themiloffice.com)
What is Moments in Leadership?
Moments in Leadership is a podcast where you will hear firsthand about the careers of senior military leaders as they share their unique and individual experiences. Moments in Leadership will immerse you in real-life stories where you will learn about the challenging situations these accomplished leaders faced and discover the lessons they learned early in their careers that were the most influential in developing their overall leadership style. 
 
Conceptualized by a group of friends who served together as young officers in the early to mid-1990s sitting around a firepit telling funny leadership stories, Moments in Leadership is designed to provide some relatable context to the formal leadership training leaders of all ranks and services receive throughout their military careers through the power of storytelling.
 
Why Should You Support this project? 
I realize all of the leaders who listen to the episodes are at different levels of life, and my goal is to be able to

This episode is a unique look into the mind of one of our service’s senior leaders days before a major hearing. Moreso than a typical CSPAN briefing of soundbites, the lister will be able to hear, in detail, plans to improve quality of life and lethality of Marines. The 20th Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps (SMMC), Carlos Ruiz, discusses the initiatives he plans to champion during his tenure as the SMMC and how Quality of Life improvement ultimately makes the Marine Corps a more lethal organization and force for the American public.   
One of the most transformational questions asked of SgtMaj Ruiz is the state of the barracks. SMMC Ruiz discusses how the Marine Corps, at the most senior levels, are taking positive and tangible action to alleviate this most common and consequential of issues. SMMC Ruiz details the renovation plans and how the ability to move Marines may not be the ideal solution. SMMC Ruiz also details how the ability to press the ‘I believe’ button is important and helps the whole process. One of the key adjacent tangents around the barracks issue is the use of Social Media as both a positive and a negative in allowing leaders to see what is behind typical ‘painting the rocks’ inspections and true issues in the barracks. 
The barracks issue leads into larger priorities the SMMC is working on, specifically those issues tied to recruiting and retaining a quality force. The use of quality of life means the individual Marine needs to be looked at as a person and not merely as a number to fill a billet. Understanding that individual Marines have individual goals, lives, and, more importantly, options means the Marine Corps has to compete with a burgeoning American economy and the private sector. This key issue girds a lot of the arguments currently being aligned under Quality of Life 2030 initiatives.  
The great tacticians will understand how best to use all of their supporting fires. In the battle to increase the Quality of Life 2030 for Marines, SMMC Ruiz understands and leans into using non-traditional and non-Marine Corps aligned organizations, such as PB Abbatte. Similarly, the increased and prominent use of Social Media allows the SMMC an unvarnished look into the Force and also allows Marines to see others providing skills perhaps unavailable in their own units. 1st Battalion 8th Marine Regiment is brought up as an example of a unit using Social Media for positive outcomes and showing how other units in the Marine Corps have used this new paradigm to their advantage. 
Quality of Life extends to Marines' careers and how they are brought along in their journey to become a future Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps. Understanding the Marine Corps’ mission ultimately comes first does not mean Marines do not rate to have an honest conversation and transparency in how the Marine Corps plans to use them. Balancing the new generation of empowered, knowledge and opportunity-wise, Marines with the realities of the service is another priority SMMC wants to improve on while in his seat. 
While this episode does touch on leadership issues (taking care of subordinates, being a good sensor, and understanding how to accomplish the mission), it is more impactful for understanding the thought process and careful deliberation and contemplation senior/executive level leaders undergo to make their best arguments on behalf of their services and ultimately those who make the majority of those services strength, the enlisted. 
Thank you for supporting the project (below)Please consider supporting this project on Supercast: Moments In Leadership Supercast 
Want to support the project AND look cool at the gym or when you take your blouse off for a working party? Grab a cool tee shirt here from Mission Essential Gear, where every order supports this project AND donates back to Patrol Base Abbate 
Relevant Resources & Other Mentioned Episodes:
LtGen David Bellon and the 20th Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps

This Ain’t the Boy Scouts – U.S. Army Major General Matthew D. Smith
In this episode of Moments in Leadership, Army Major General Matthew D. Smith and host David B. Armstrong discuss the early parts of his life and career, concluding with his time holding battlespace in Afghanistan without a workup cycle to support that style of operation. His insights offer a different spice to the typical Moments in Leadership ranks as they take into account both National Guard and U.S. Army perspectives. Listeners will hear similarities across this discussion with other Moments in Leadership and will reinforce core leadership traits.  
Understanding the difference between child’s play and the real consequences of actual leadership is one of the first hurdles a military leader must overcome in their journey. A leader has real responsibilities, ethically and legally, to uphold and must be ruthless in carrying them out, as literal lives depend on it. School and training courses can only prepare you so much and you must learn both academic and practical skills. The only thing you can’t get back is time. Leaders need to learn from those who have gone before them and not make the leadership mistake of making a mistake someone learned before you. 
Being liked is a good skill to have as a leader but being liked is not the end goal of leadership. Subordinates will take care of leaders who take care of them and let those who believe they are ‘above it all’ be all alone above them. Subordinates’ perspectives should be taken into account, but mission success does dictate all. This is a balancing act and an enduring one leaders must undertake. 
Standards are standards since they are non-negotiable and are often written in others’ blood. To rebuild an organization, one must work on building from the ground up and reinforcing the basics, regardless of what they are, and reinforcing the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’. 
Major General Smith concludes with the importance of understanding the purpose, or goal, of a mission being more important than the task, or how, of the mission. He further discusses how understanding the subordinates below you and how the application of a ‘Napoleon’s Corporal’ is crucially important to success as they are the lowest echelon to carry out the actual mission and need to understand the stated purpose.  This episode builds off previous Moments in Leadership and shows how core traits of leadership and followership are universal, even in the U.S. Army.   
Thank you for supporting the project (below)
 
Please consider supporting this project on Supercast: Moments In Leadership Supercast 
 
Want to support the project AND look cool at the gym or when you take your blouse off for a working party? Grab a cool tee shirt here from Mission Essential Gear, where every order supports this project AND donates back to Patrol Base Abbate 
 
Relevant Resources & Other Mentioned Episodes:
LtGen David Bellon and the 20th Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, SgtMaj Carlos Ruiz – A Command Team Briefing to Alpha Company TBS 2022 (themiloffice.com) 
Vice Admiral (Retired) William R. Merz, USN – At 1000 Feet, Leadership Can Crush You (themiloffice.com) 
What is Moments in Leadership?
Moments in Leadership is a podcast where you will hear firsthand about the careers of senior military leaders as they share their unique and individual experiences. Moments in Leadership will immerse you in real-life stories where you will learn about the challenging situations these accomplished leaders faced and discover the lessons they learned early in their careers that were the most influential in developing their overall leadership style. 
 
Conceptualized by a group of friends who served together as young officers in the early to mid-1990s sitting around a firepit telling funny leadership stories, Moments in Leadership is designed to provide some relatable context to the formal leadership training leaders of all ranks

Sergeant Major Rivera enlisted in the Marine Corps in July 2000 and is currently assigned to the 3d Littoral Logistics Battalion. Extended show notes are coming - I'm just getting this episode out there for listening.  Email me if you have any questions before I post notes.

In this episode of Moments in Leadership, host David B. Armstrong spends time with retired Marine Colonel Stephen Davis, a veteran of the post-Vietnam War Marine Corps, the Reconnaissance Community, Joint Special Operations, and multiple combat tours up to the Regimental Command level, where they spend time discussing various topics related to hard-won lessons from the front lines combined with a realist take on what command, leadership, and management means.
 
From Colonel Davis’ initial training operations and three courts martial in his first week of command, the conversation discusses the concept of having, understanding, and being humble enough to ask for assistance from those who have been there before, namely the Staff Non-Commissioned Officers who have the inherent experience in an organization. This oft-ridden military maxim is buttressed by examples of not being wholly subservient to these people either and Colonel Davis provides examples where ‘stellar’ Marines have cracked under pressure and changes have to be made to protect the troops.   
 
Colonel Davis never expected to stay in the Marine Corps and some of the reasons he decided to make it a career early into it provide some examples of how leadership is often the primary determinant of wanting to belong, or conversely, to leave, an organization. Leaders make the culture. Colonel Davis subscribed to this notion enough that he made himself overly useful as an infantry officer in a Reconnaissance unit as its Supply Officer. This led to large dividends down the road in his command life and shows true leaders take opportunities, even if they appear bad, and make the best out of them. 
 
The Reconnaissance Community instilled numerous values within Colonel Davis. Specifically, he learned how to lead overachievers, how sometimes metrics are not the best indicators of a ‘good’ unit or Marine, and the differences between Management and Leadership. 
 
One of the more interesting lessons Colonel Davis provides is on the concept of the combat leader. Colonel Davis leans into the idea that leaders need to be where they need to be, but not always at the front. He is also a believer that the line between a bad decision and the Medal of Honor is razor-thin and medal chasers have no business in the combat arms field. 
 
Colonel Davis provides discussion points on the focus of a leader (the Commanding Officer) vice a manager (the Executive Officer/Chief of Staff) and how they are both important to the overall success of an organization. 
 
The episode goes into Colonel Davis’ time as the Regimental Combat Team 2 Commanding Officer and the successes (Manuever Warfare use of illusionary force structure in a Counterinsurgency environment to take ‘denied’ strongholds in two days) and the failures (Moral issue sins of commission and omission with the Haditha killings) and how these incidents led to him once again blossoming to help with similar issues within the Naval Special Warfare Community, specifically moral injury, boundless loyalty, and who does a person owe their allegiance to.
 
Overall, the episode is an insightful discussion about leadership, moral convictions, and the ability to take the best out of situations. 
 
Thank you for supporting the project (below)
 
Please consider supporting this project on Supercast: Moments In Leadership Supercast 
 
Want to support the project AND look cool at the gym or when you take your blouse off for a working party? Grab a cool tee shirt here from Mission Essential Gear, where every order supports this project AND donates back to Patrol Base Abbate 
 
Be sure to check out the sponsor of this show Fieldseats.com for virtual reviews of great firearms, optics and gear where at the end of the virtual review, they give theitem away to an attendee. Be sure to use CODE: “LETHALMINDS” for 10% off the registration to a virtual review and check out their Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube accounts @filed_