Search results

My blog post about the difficult transition to civilian life. Almost 10 years to this day that I left the uniform and there are still many aspects I miss sorely. Mod Edit: Deleted blog advertising link.

Just curious, under your avatar I read "staff member, directing staff, and subscriber". What do those mean? I saw "donor" and "mentor" too.

Intelligence, mostly, and security, generally. Got a contract for me? ;-)

From what I read and what I know, "pointing out" a toxic leader is the worst strategy, as they only get more toxic. It's unfortunate but real toxic leaders cannot be reformed, they ought to be fired.

Very interesting post. I would hope that we're able to screen real sociopaths/psychopaths before they get to the recruit school, or before they get to their unit. "Functional sociopaths", I love the term. When I mentioned "psychopaths", what I actually read from psychology was that toxic...

It's a small world we live in...

Thanks, I appreciate your frankness. I was a little surprised at first by everyone's visceral reaction to the post, I was hoping that people wouldn't judge the book by its cover. I don't have a problem personally with "hard" bosses, in the sense of demanding leaders. As long as they're fair...

True. And I do have strong evidence but I guess it didn't reflect in my paper, for the simple fact that I didn't want to provide names or specific examples.

On phase 3 a WO threatened to kill (pierce) us, as described above. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. On phase 4 a WO used to keep us in a room, many Friday evenings, for 2 reasons: (1) to prevent us from "escaping" towards Quebec City at a decent time, and (2) to tell us, in lengthy and...

I happen to be both a fellow soldier and a consultant ;-) I'll do my best to not base my judgement on professional bias (déformation professionnelle in French!)

Trust me when I say that the first quote comes from a person in the CAF. It actually come from a BGen talking about a superior. The example in Afg, yes, it's dated. But remember I left in 2014 and I made it clear in the article that I think things are getting better. And, again, I'll ask you to...

There is formal teaching/instructing and then there is what one learns by observing, which is as important. I was told several time to take care of my troops, Mission First - Men Second, that type of stuff. That's not always what I witnessed though. I have seen toxic leaders say all the right...

Ok ok. Send me the "unwritten" rules about behaving on Army.ca because clearly I'm not familiar with the culture here. I can - and do - debate seriously. I also like to joke but I'll keep that for myself. ACK.

I don't disagree with this! On my phase 2, the instructors did an amazing job at turning each candidate against each other. To the point where one was the victim of a "code red", or what we call "passer à la couverte". Only 2 of us didn't take part in this ritual. When I learned about it the...

I just saw this on LinkedIn and I thought it applied well to our discussion!

I learned a new expression: to swing a dead cat! I had to google it to make sure I understood the exact meaning. That's a keeper!

I like the factors that you put out, they are real issues. Now, yes I was a van doos, but many people I talked to are not. I do believe though that the problem is more prevalent in combat arms because, let's face it, we are full of A-type personalities. That said, I have worked in Int for 10...

See we all have different experiences, and I've indeed talked to people who told me they didn't think toxic leadership was an issue. To me and to countless others, it was. I've talked to many recently retired, capable ones, who said that toxic leadership was THE deciding factor in them taking...

Obviously I'm completely new to this platform, I knew nothing about the points thing, for instance, and that people would automatically see that I was a newcomer. That said, I'm a serious debater when it comes to military affairs, I have a long experience in the Army, I have a Masters Degree in...