WAR ROOM to BOARDROOM

Leadership Lessons from West Point's Warrior Class

Patrick O'Farrell

• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781646544448
• eBook ISBN: 9781646544455
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Leadership
• Index: Business

War room to Board room is a well-organized collection containing over 50 leadership techniques used by West Pointers who developed their leadership skills as top officers in the military and now apply these same techniques in business.

Now as Chairman's and CEOs, Medical Executive Doctors, Business Executives, Inventors and Founders of Companies built on Innovation, Combat Aviators, and current senior public executives offer their leadership lessons that helped them along the way.

Each lesson told as a story when they learned it, then captured again at the end of the chapter with all lessons summarized at the end of the book for easy reference. A useful leader handbook to keep nearby on every business leader's desk.

"Very useful for leaders in any environment: business, military, church group efforts, sports, volunteer projects… Any place there is a group to be led, universal lessons that apply from war room to boardroom." (Alex Gorsky, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Johnson & Johnson, West Point–Warrior Class)

"Several war room to boardroom leadership examples included—a great read." (Mike Durant, President and Founder, Pinnacle Solutions Inc., Author of In the Company of Heroes, Combat Aviator—Black Hawk Down)

"Excellent Leadership Lessons inside. War Room to Boardroom gets my vote!" (Delvin Sullivan, Entrepreneur and Philanthropist, Author, of The Wealthy Child, Iraqi Freedom Veteran [2X])

"O'Farrell and Hegarty offer many hands-on tips to use when leading organizations to victory. Well done!" (Nick Logan, Founder and Chairman of Cornerstone Payment Systems, Author and Screenwriter, Owner, College Hula Bowl)

Chapter 16: Conclusion

Conclusion: War Room to Boardroom Leadership Lessons

If there is not the war, you don’t get the great general; if there is not a great occasion, you don’t get a great statesman; if Lincoln had lived in a time of peace, no one would have known his name.

—Theodore Roosevelt

This story of the West Point Class of 1982 is one of evolving growth and leadership combined with a deep sense of duty and a desire to contribute and give back through service to others, supporting our Nation’s causes worldwide in uniform still or now applying these same leadership skills in business.

As a previous Superintendent of the United States Military Academy, LTG Robert Caslen once stated,

This great institution continues to evolve to meet the needs of today’s Army, and, in doing so, we steadfastly uphold the highest academic, military, physical and disciplinary standards. While we do not compromise standards, we are a developmental institution with the timeless mission to provide Leaders of Character to our Army and Nation and an enduring commitment to excellence.

This commitment to excellence must permeate everything we do. I will not compromise my decision to advocate winning in accordance with our values of duty, honor and country. It is what America expects of our Army and of its leaders. The crucible of ground combat is unforgiving, and we owe it to our cadets to give them every opportunity to learn how to succeed. We are committed to developing our future leaders to be successful on today’s complex battlefield, and always, how to do so in accordance with our values.

This Class of Warriors from 1982, the Select Few, has embodied these values in every way, in every aspect, across the board.

The selection process to get into our service academies and the intensity and rigor of the academics, field training, and athletics is well known. But I am also impressed with those, such as in the Class of ’82, who received destiny’s call and rose boldly to the occasion.

Not highlighted in this book are our Quiet Professionals—the special operators and Delta Force studs from our class, such as my fellow platoon leader Arie Bogaard, Company I-1 Special Ops officer Craig Fox, who served in Special Forces just like his father, plus Ed Olivares, John Vilosky, Steve Boston, Pete Keller, Paul Guerra, and Sean Ryan, to name a few from the Warrior Class who went into the Special Ops world.

As I finish this story for now, we have a few classmates still serving in their fourth decade of service to our country.

The Warrior Class has had twenty-six classmates make general officer. Eight have made BG, ten MG, six LTG, and two- to Four-Star General.

Of the twenty-six active, reserve, and National Guard component general officers from the class, eleven are still serving at last count.

Other Notable Warrior Class Standouts Who Are Still Serving or Have Recently Retired

LTG William C. Mayville, Jr., a teammate of mine when I played Sprint Football at the Academy, concluded his distinguished career as the Vice Commander, United States Cyber Command, Fort Meade, Maryland.

LTG Ed Cardon, Director of the Office of Business Transformation for the Army, retired after heading up the Army’s Force Modernization efforts.

MG Bo Dyess had his retirement ceremony in May 2017. Bo completed his career as the Acting Director...

Table of contents

• Introduction: Warrior Class
• One West Point Story
• Paul Wood
• Brian Allgood
• Bill Hedges
• John Hornick
• James Lee
• Kevin Griffith
• Mark Averill
• Jim Flynn
• Dan Mulligan
• Mick Nicholson
• Nadja Grammer-West
• Alex Gorsky
• Abe Abrams
• Leadership Lessons