The Power of Consequences

3/1/2013

It is Friday with a break in the action, so I am am going to bounce around a bit with a few musings - some related and some not.

- Military schools, because they possess the power and willingness of consequences, can absorb a small number of malcontented cadets, but the permissible period of dissent has a limit.

- Eagle Challenge is designed to help our cadets better appreciate the opportunity to partake from the "banquet of life."

- Military schools do not produce geniuses; they will happen anyway.  However, these academies at times admit second and third rate students of average or better aptitude and prepare them for the rigors of college.  Combined with the leadership skills, character development, and the appreciation for accountability, these cadets are prepared for positions of responsibility post college.  These human changes may well be the glory of our academies.

Habits grow stronger with age; that is both good and bad.

"The higher one goes up the hierarchy of leadership, the more one needs to throttle back, lower the volume, and listen more and better.  At the same time, one needs to let up on the reins and allow others to lead, think, and manage.  The academics would call it empowerment; I call it delegating responsibility.

Someone once said that getting beaten is different from losing.  Even the better organizations/teams lose on occasion, but when you are beaten you were outworked, over-confident, and uncommitted.

At Riverside, we help cadets comprehend the meaning of "no", which some have rarely experienced.  We teach them responsibility, because no one here will do everything for them.  To a large degree, they are in charge of themselves for the first time.