So, you want to be a leader at school, work, ball team, or church? Do you have the right Brand U stuff? More and more, the ‘right Brand U stuff’ is getting in touch with your inner child. This is called sensitivity training and it’s done all over the place. For example, Army sensitivity training for wanna-be generals is getting in touch with their ‘inner jerks’ and is mandatory boot camp for today’s military leaders.
Army generals must now attend charm school where they learn Year 2000 leadership principles and practices. This includes understanding and losing the ugly side of their personalities. The days are gone when a general could command his subordinates without considering the military’s many stakeholders from congressmen to journalists. If male generals are not sensitive to the issues of ‘booze, broads, golf, money, and airplanes,’ then they’re told ‘you will adapt or you will perish.’
On-the-job sex has especially become a critical issue for these generals. Keep the zipper zipped the Brand U generals are warned. If you get into trouble, don’t think that 25 years of service entitles you to anything, the generals are warned. ‘The Army owes you absolutely nothing: zero, zip, nothing.’[i]
[i] Ricks, Thomas, “Charmed Forces: Army ‘Baby Generals’ Take a Crash Course in Sensitivity Training,” Wall Street Journal, February 19, 1998, p. A1.