For you Joe Dirt fans, for the last 4 days I have been like the dog on the porch, hence a lack of posts--it hurt too bad to reach for the computer in Toto-land where it was 0 to 5 degrees every morning.

But anyway.

The team leader comments are all spot on but I would add one--you cannot train experienced leadership. You can teach leadership as a subject and we have to; history is always my favorite lab for that.

To me the sign of an experienced leader is one who can recognize his own shortcomings even as he sees the strengths of others. CTs and platoons are alike in that they are small and you have to maximize the benefits of your collective strengths as you minimize the effects of individual or collective weaknesses. Egos are by defintion potentially crippling weaknesses.

The smallest possible team is 2 (unless you speak to yourself and answer in a different voice); one of the most arrogantly stupid moves I ever witnessed was my successor in Zaire's (Congo) decision to put Stan Reber back behind a desk. One of the smartest I ever saw was Ambassador David Rawson's decision to turn over security arrangements for the National Security Advisor's visit to Kigali to my Navy chief--I was in DC and returned the day before the visit.

Best

Tom