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About Us

Battlefield Leadership is a leadership training and consulting company specialized in experiential learning methods. Much of our work is derived from the great battles and military initiatives from history, since the leadership moments and lessons in these events are so vivid and since they are so well preserved in the historical record. We also focus on notable leadership examples from history, remarkable individuals who have taken decisive action in moments of crisis or opportunity to shape the future for their countries or organizations.

Since the focus of our review of historic action is predominantly on leadership behavior and decision-making, there is no intrinsic bias or appeal. It matters not whether one is female or male, black or white, Asian or European, or American or German, as the circumstances and dynamics and the messages and lessons have a universal relevance; and, the fundamental human drama of individuals in battle or crisis is emotionally and equally compelling to fellow human beings, regardless of their gender, national origin or political loyalties.

We offer standard programs and customized versions thereof, which, in the case of our classroom programs, are able to be delivered either in convenient locations of your choice, or on location (in the case of our primary programs based on great battles) on the fields where historic decisions and actions physically took place.

Our principal partners and lead facilitators are established experts and highly credible management consultants with extensive backgrounds in military history, corporate management and leadership, and in organizational development consulting.

Team-building Benefits

Though our approach is focused on leader development at an individual level, because changes in leadership behavior or practice always have to be actively embraced by the individuals involved, most of our programs are delivered to either intact leadership teams or work teams, or to groups composed of individuals from different departments or functions in the same company or organization. The intact teams frequently include three reporting levels and, occasionally a fourth. The compounding effect of our individualized development focus within a team context can be a powerful accelerant to team building, and to rapidly changing the focus for leadership in a broader organization.

Our Most Important Difference

Not only do our expert facilitators and historians have a unique combination of relevant experience, and, not insignificantly, have they worked with more corporate executives and leaders than any other firm in this field, but our delivery approach is so focused on the story component of hi-story, that the actions and decisions of our subject leaders are brought to life in a most compelling and memorable fashion. This quality makes content registration in the learning mode much more vivid, and it also heightens the emotional engagement of participants in the learning process overall. This emotional overlay to the memorable nature of the content, and the lessons derived explicitly from it, is a directly reinforced element of our delivery, which, in turn, drives a heightened sense of relevance to the application of the lessons in the business environment.

Yet, our most distinctive difference is our proprietary technology for the transfer of leadership insight from the experiential mode on the battlefield into specific action in the workplace. The methods, exercises, and points of reference used to guide the participants in targeting the most critical challenges in their current roles as leaders in the corporate arena, and in applying the lessons learned from their experience in history to those challenges, are the pivotal components in a unique process which ensures relevance and direct linkage of the learning experience to actions and outcomes at work. Our greatest reward for the role we play as enthusiastic instruments of learning and continuous improvement is the consistent feedback from participants citing the difference our sessions make in their results at work and their progression as leaders in their organizations.


Testimonials

There is no better feeling for a champion of corporate learning than when a creative leadership development program makes an important difference for the organization AND wins over the skeptics. Battlefield Leadership is such a success story for General Mills. We first used Cole and Rich for one of our major division leadership teams. While some leaders were excited to use history and battles as a learning tool, others here weren’t so sure. But history came alive for all members of the team that week and it made a powerful impact on individuals and the working team. Since then numerous teams have sought out the Battlefield experience and we have an ongoing demand for this offering. I can highly recommend this program and also greatly value the partnership with the principal consultants.

Kevin D. Wilde
VP, Organization Effectiveness
and Chief Learning Officer
General Mills, Inc.


On behalf of International Paper, please accept my thanks for a great job in taking us through the Gettysburg experience. Your enthusiasm and deep knowledge about the subject made for a rich experience, and your energy kept everyone going through a very busy day. As leaders, our challenge is to take these new learnings and use them to motivate our people to help us take our company to the next level. Thanks again, and well done!

John T. Dillon
Chairman
International Paper


We are determined not to let the lessons we learned at Gettysburg go to waste. So I have dedicated two hours every month for leadership training. I’ve assigned each of my managers a month to run a session. Focus of each session is to make us better leaders individually and as a team by learning from each other.

Michael Hobbs
Vice President
Custom Services & Development
Novation


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