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Brigadier General Maureen LeBoeuf · Five Questions for a General

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Foreign.
• 0:03
  Speaker B: You're listening to five Questions for a General, a production of the Modern War Institute at West point. I am Dr. Charles Fate, the team lead for this podcast series which features interviews of senior military leaders conducted by specially selected and trained West Point cadet hosts. These exchanges produce timely, relevant, and inspirational insights for professional development of leaders at all levels.
• 0:24
  Speaker C: Ladies and gentlemen, west, welcome back to the west point class of 1974 recording studio and the five questions for a general podcast. I'm Cadet Parker Brown, your host, and it is my pleasure to be here today with retired BRIGadier General Maureen LaBeouf. General LaBeouf graduated from St. Bonaventure University and received a direct commission into the Army. She then served in the operational army as an aviator before coming to West Point to serve in the Department of Physical Education. She rose to the head of that department, earning the title of Master of the Sword. She joins us today for a discussion about philosophy, fitness, and leadership development. General, welcome to the show.
• 0:59
  Speaker A: Well, thank you, Parker. I'm glad to be here.
• 1:01
  Speaker C: Thank you very much for being here today. Before we get into the questions, I'd like to ask you a little bit about your background.
• 1:07
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 1:08
  Speaker C: So, General LaBeouf, what led you to decide to join the Army?
• 1:11
  Speaker A: Thank you. And it's great to be here. This is a class of 74 gift. My husband is actually from the west point class of 1974. So I am the middle child of nine and grew up in a small town. My dad was a professor at St. Bonaventure University, and when you have nine children, that's how you send them to college. We all had presidential scholarships. We were all St. Bonaventure graduates, but my dad served in the Air Force Reserves, so I was. That was familiar to me growing up because every month he probably went to meetings, but he was actually a military liaison officer for the Air Force Academy. So he would do his two weeks of active duty out in Colorado at the Air Force Academy. And then when my brother, my oldest brother went to St. Bonaventure, he joined rotc. My brother commissioned and he was an armor officer. So his name's Leo. But he graduated from bonus in 71, went into the army, and I think that kind of piqued my interest a bit, seeing him go in the Army. My undergraduate degree is in education, and I knew if I stayed in the area, I would be school teacher and I would never leave my small hometown. Not that there's anything wrong with my town, but I used to always watch jets fly over and wonder where they were going. So Went to St. Bonaventure and they actually started ROTC for women. Women were allowed to go into rotc. I think it was my sophomore year, so I was in rotc. And we were in, I mean, no hair regulation, just. I mean, hair just all over the place. I think there were six or seven women in the program, and our picture was in the paper. And back then we called them fatigues. And then there became a directive that there were to be no more pictures of women cadets, probably till they figured out the uniform standards. And so I will be honest, this is kind of embarrassing. I was going to continue on my junior year and I needed to take a physical, and I had a lot of surgery as a little girl, and I was afraid to take the physical, so I did not show up. But then my junior year, I was on the swim team at Saint Bonaventure. I was going to swim team practice, going to the student union, and there was a woman army officer at a table and she had brochures, and I had to get to practice because being late wasn't an option. And when I came out from practice, she was gone. But the brochures were there. So I picked up a brochure, went back to my room and read it. And it described a program that the army had at the time to assess women officers. West Point was not open to women, and they had just started rotc. So it was a way to assess women officers. So I applied for the program, took the physical, and then went and spent four weeks at Fort McClellan, Alabama, between my junior and senior year in college with 125 other women from around the country. And they picked, I think, about 80 of us to go on active duty. When we graduated, I was actually paid as a corporal. E4, like I'm a hard striper and graduated, was commissioned, initially commissioned in the women's Army Corps. So I was a WAC and went in the Army. And my first assignment was at Fort Eustis because I went back to Fort McClellan for basically officer candidate school. I had a second lieutenant bar, some of us had second lieutenant bars, and some of the women had OCS across their hats. So essentially went 12 week OCS program. Then my first studio assignment was Fort Eustis for McClellan. I went to basic and I was an ordnance officer. Went to Fort Eustis, and first I was on staff, and then I became a platoon leader and I had 85 men, no women. My brother was, as I told you, an armor officer. And I said to him, how big is your company? He was a company commander. He said, I have 80 soldiers and five officers. And I said, oh, I guess I could command an armored company. And he said, I don't think so. But anyway, that's kind of. It was a family thing. And then interestingly enough, my two younger sisters served in the army and my youngest brother also served in the Army. So at one time, five of us, I don't think we were all in at the same time, but my oldest brother retired as a colonel, so he's retired. The other three didn't stand, but they did serve. So there you go.
• 5:44
  Speaker C: That's very interesting to hear and I think that makes your story all the more inspiring. One of the positions you served in that West Point was Master of the Sword. So what drew you to West Point in the first place?
• 5:55
  Speaker A: To teach?
• 5:56
  Speaker C: Why was it called that? And what did that job entail?
• 5:58
  Speaker A: So my husband's a West Point graduate, as I said, and he and I were assigned to the same battalion at Fort Eustis. He was the only engineer company. Everything else was transportation corps. And, and Joe was kind of the red headed stepchild, but he commanded the 497th Engineer Company. And this is important for cadets. And I always would say this when I taught cadets, whether or not it's fair or not, more is expected of you because you're West Point graduates. I always had high, high expectations of West Point graduates. And my husband was probably the only West Pointer in the battalion. And he was sharper than everybody else, so he would sit in meetings and totally had his stuff together. And I was a young lieutenant and he was a captain, so he asked me out and we were in different units so it was okay. And we started dating. We dated for a short three and a half years. We were in Germany and he asked me to marry him. And so we got married during that assignment. We were in Germany and came to the States and Joe had been selected to go to graduate school because he was going to teach in bsnl. And so he was at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, and we lived south of Atlanta. I was at Forces Command headquarters with all the colonels. I didn't always said I didn't have enough rank to make the coffee and honestly did not know what I was going to do. I had applied to teach. NDP and DP said they would accept me, but Aviation Branch said no, you're never going to teach there and you will never ever fly there. So I was home on maternity leave and the phone rang and it was a colleague of mine who had served with me in Germany. He was the S3, I was the one. And he and his wife and another couple. And Joe and I went out to dinner once a week at a local guest house. So he's on the phone, we're catching up. And this is before texting and email. So if you called somebody, it was a long distance call and it costs money. And there's a thing that we did called writing letters. I don't know if you know what that is, but you'd have to find an envelope and a stamp. It was a whole thing. But he called me and I said, where are you stationed? And he said, I'm at personnel command. And I said, what's your job? And he said, I'm your assignments officer. So the person that decides next place I go. And he said, I see that you've applied to teach at West Point in the Department of Physical Education. Do you want to do that? And I said, well, Branch told me I couldn't. He said, maureen, do you want to go teach in DP West Point? And I said, yes. And he said, we're going to make that happen. So this was in August. In March of the following year, I was in grad school at the University of Georgia en route to coming to West Point to teach in the Department of Physical Education. So the message there, relationships matter. And it certainly wasn't the reason I developed a relationship with him. But had I not had a good relationship with him, I never would have ended up here. I don't know what would have happened because Joe was coming here and I don't know what would have happened. And we were geographically separated. He left like in July and I had a 15 month program. And so I was a geographical single parent. I was in grad school with a one year old. That was interesting.
• 9:20
  Speaker C: That's amazing. Thank you very much for sharing. I want to look a bit more broadly now at your leadership philosophy as a whole. General LaBeouf, you've been in the leadership business both in and out of uniform for a long time. In an article for Chief Executive magazine, you mentioned the importance of developing and sharing one's leadership philosophy with the teams you led. How did your philosophy of leadership develop over the course of your army career? And how has it changed since entering the world of education and business?
• 9:47
  Speaker A: So I wrote my leadership philosophy when I became the Master of the sword. That's the first time I wrote one. And so the thing is, as you grow up in the army, you watch other leaders and you watch to see how they lead and kind of the Things you want to pick up from them. And then you can also learn a lot from leaders who are not as inspiring. And so that's probably how it developed a leadership philosophy. It's basically, what are your core values and how are you going to live those values when you lead? But it was the first conversation I had as the master of the sword with the staff and faculty of the department. And the thing is, when there's going to be a new boss, people will say, do you know, so and so, like, oh, have you ever worked with Parker? You know, what's he like? And a leadership philosophy, when you come up and stand up in front of your people and say, you're essentially saying, this is who I am as your leader, and this is what you can expect of me. And in turn, I would also have my expectations of the people I lead. And so that is my leadership philosophy. And the leadership philosophy for DP was part of. It was very specific to DP because we were undergoing a lot of change. So one of the tenets of my leadership philosophy was manage change. So the very first piece of mine is care. And I said, we care about each other, we care about our families. And you may not believe this, but we care about cadets. And I think people that have served with me would tell you that that really is who I am at my core. I care about the people that I lead. And if somebody was in the hospital, I was going to go visit them. And so it just. Even as a young officer, and it wasn't anything anybody told me, I remember I had a soldier who had knee surgery, and then I went and called his parents and told his parents how he was doing in dp, the motto of dp. And we developed that when I was the head of the department, was set the standard, maintain the standard. And I always said that we need to be the standard. So that's kind of my motto now. So my philosophy now has become changed from what it was to be fit, be faithful, be positive. It's a whole lot of. It's a list of things that I think I want to be that's really interesting.
• 12:14
  Speaker C: And you capture a lot of your lessons about leadership in a book you published. So I want to focus the conversation towards that for a moment. In your book, developing your philosophy of living and leading one moment at a time, you talk about the value of storytelling. What can sharing stories contribute to the study and practice of leadership?
• 12:31
  Speaker A: So I think leaders should be really good storytellers, but the story has to have a point. And so whenever A leader tells a story. I say, just make sure there's a message there. People remember a story and they may not remember other things, but if you have a compelling story with a point, they're going to remember it. So there's a story that I tell. I have a keynote that I give and I talk about being a fourth grader. And the title of the keynote is Moments that Matter. So these are moments from my life that have mattered. Fourth grade, nine years old, Catholic school. Mother Superior is coming down to our school to see us. And that's a big deal because she didn't come every year. And so she visited every classroom and there were two classes at each grade level. And I remember she was in our class getting ready. She's turned to leave, she turned back to us and she said, how many of you want to be President of the United States someday? All the boys raised their hands and so did I. And my classmates sitting around me started to laugh. And she pointed at me and she said, what's your name? And so I stood up and I said, mother Superior, my name is Maureen Keenan. And she said, don't laugh at Maureen. Someday there will be a woman president. So, you know, I walked around school the rest of the day like future President of the United States. Mother Superior said so. But what she did for me was she allowed me to think that I could be the President of the United States. And so the message there is, as leaders, you don't ever know the power of what you say to someone, what it can do for them. Because it was a powerful moment for a little nine year old to have Mother Superior say, someday there will be a woman president. And I still think that someday we will have a woman president. But if asked, I will not run.
• 14:27
  Speaker C: That's very empowering to hear. So we've talked a lot about the right way to go about leading others. But what do you think most organizations, military or civilian, still get wrong about developing leaders?
• 14:38
  Speaker A: So first of all, the Army's definition of leadership has that last piece is to improve the organization. And part of improving the organization is developing other leaders. And sometimes I think leaders don't always think about what it means to develop others. And maybe they think they need to develop followers, but real leaders develop other leaders because the sign of a good organization is if the leader leaves, the organization continues to function. And if there's a line outside your door in the morning, there's a problem and you're the problem. And it means you're a micromanager that your folks can't do anything without you telling them how to do it. And so I'm not sure people get it wrong. I'm not sure they're leaders. I know don't that don't think about leading and be intentional about it. I now work with their leadership. And you know, the army has a model. BE no do B is your professional identity. No is your professional competence. And do is your professional example, which is a great model. And I think it's a great model really in the simplicity, although it's really not simple. But their leadership now has a model and it's being a leader of character, competence, commitment and people always mission first and thrives in vuca. And so as a leader, I think it's important to have a way to think about the way in which you lead. And for you as a cadet and as a future leader in the army, it's be no do but having a lens in a way to think about the way in which you lead and then also to reflect. People don't reflect. And I'm sure as a cadet, you don't have the kind of time that you need to really reflect. You're just, you're in the do world. You just do do do all day long. And the way that you can, you know, your B really gets your B is to be able to reflect on who am I, who do I want to be as a leader. So I think it's really thinking about the role, the way in which you lead and how do you think about leading? What is the lens that you need to look at? How do you look at the way in which you lead? When I took over as the head of the department, General Anderson was my predecessor and he said to me, maureen, some days you just need to close the door and be quiet and think. And you know, I was a colonel in the army, and when the first person said, sometimes you just need to think. So that's kind of. And I do think in the military the app tempo is so, so high. You do wonder how are leaders really taking the time to think about how they lead. But in my experience, organizations don't do leadership development the way the United States army does the Army. It's deliberate. It's very deliberate. And so I think that is another thing to think about, that leading is deliberate and it is such an honor to lead the Sons and Daughters of America. And honestly, in any organization, to be put in charge of other human beings is an honor. And so you need to be the best you can be to lead people.
• 17:58
  Speaker C: Definitely I Think intentionality is extremely important. And at West Point, we strive to expand our perspectives every day. Ma', am, you said you were in the Women's Army Corps, and then ordinance and an aviation. What path sort of led you down going to those different branches?
• 18:14
  Speaker A: So you should have said it sounds like you couldn't keep a job. So initially when I went in, I was in the Women's Army Corps at Fort McClellan and actually wore Pallas Athena, which was the branch symbol for the Women's Army Corps, which is in the cadet uniforms. And so then I had to pick a branch. So I went ordnance. Then, as I mentioned, my first duty station was Fort Eustis was all transportation except one company, but they had an ordinance slot, which was only activated during wartime. And so I liked Davey, liked transportation. So I asked a branch transfer. And so I branch transferred. It was the fastest thing I ever did. It happened in, like, two weeks, probably because I was at the center of transportation center in school. Then I went to flight school. And back then, aviation was not a branch. When I went to flight school, there were officers from all different branches, like infantry, armor. And then I'm trying to think, it was in the 80s. I got a letter and they said, you can stay transportation or branch transfer to aviation. So I went aviation. And then when I became the head of the department, I became a professor usma. So he has Women's Army Corps, Ordnance, Transportation Corps, Aviation, and Pusma. So I wonder if anybody else has had five branches. So that's how that happened.
• 19:47
  Speaker C: Moving from a military command structure to the West Point academia can be quite a shift. What surprised you most about that transition?
• 19:55
  Speaker A: I don't have a West Point background, so I came here as a captain. And there are a couple things. I arrived during the summer, so I worked cadet basic training with dp. And I will tell you something that absolutely shocked me was the screaming the upper class cadets did to the new cadets. And I would go home and say to my husband, we do not treat soldiers this way. Why are we treating. Treating future leaders of the army this way? So that was interesting. And then it's just. It's a different pace here. I'd never worked with civilians, so there are a lot of civilian faculty members in dp. And one of them called me a rookie one time, and I. And I was a new faculty member. But I thought, you know, I've got 10 years in the army. I'm married, I have a child, I've flown helicopters, I've lived in Germany, have a master's degree in education. Am I a first year faculty member? Yes. Do I have a lot to learn? Absolutely. Am I a rookie? I don't think so. But what I felt like is you don't value me. You don't value. You don't think I bring anything to the table. And so in my leadership philosophy, I have a statement in there. It is around listening. But I say there are no rookies in dp. First year faculty members, but no rookies because we would hire faculty members who had a lot of experience, civilian faculty who had a lot of experience. So that individual was sitting in the front row the first day I became spoke to the department as the Master of the Sword in whatever my leadership philosophy. And I thought, who's the rookie now, big guy? I'm the boss of you. So that's another kind of experience that you have. It was so like off putting to me. You don't think I bring anything to the table. And I thought you've never served in the military. So I have that experience. So anyway, that was quite different for me. And then I will tell you coming back, I came back as a lieutenant colonel and I was the director, excuse me, the director of instruction, being a captain here, dp Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun. And then you come back as director of instruction and when you move up and you become part of the leadership team, it's different. And I did not have a lot of fun those two years I was director of Instruction. In fact, I affectionately referred to it as the worst two years of my army career. Then went to the war college and came back as the head. And so it's just very different when you go really kind of from the tactical level to operational and the strategic level where you're thinking about when I came back as the trick is the Master of the Sword, it's like, how do we get the cadets ready to lead in the 21st century? And so it's a big difference. And then there's a lot of politics. You have to figure out how to get along with people. And when you're the Master of the Sword, people think they understand what you do because they take the APFT or whatever.
• 22:58
  Speaker C: What's it the acft, I think the AFT now, ma'. Am.
• 23:01
  Speaker A: Oh, the aft. So it was different. But I did, I learned a lot. I learned a lot about myself. And my son's a West Point grad too. He's class 07. So I retired after his plebe year. So nothing like having the Master of the Sword as your mom.
• 23:20
  Speaker C: Definitely. So you Talked a little bit about learning about yourself. Integrity and authenticity are core values you've emphasized in your talks with other leaders. How do you help leaders stay grounded in their values when they face pressure to conform or compromise?
• 23:33
  Speaker A: You know, very often now organizations are value centered organizations, or at least they have values written on their website. So one of the things I'll ask executives is, do you know your company's values? And it's interesting because some of them do. Sometimes as a collective, they can all figure them out, but sometimes they don't know any of them. And so it's like, are they really your company's values or do they just look good on a webpage or on a plaque in the front office? So I think part of it is really figuring out what your values are. And usually integrity is one of them. Figure out what your values are, and then when you go to make decisions, look at your leadership philosophy, think about what are your core values? There was an executive who came in and as a result of going through the program, the company developed values. And he was the general counsel. And so they actually had a card on their desk and a cube that had their values. And he said, whenever I'm making a big decision, I look at our values to make sure I am aligned with the organizational values. So values are, I mean, here, duty, honor, country. You'll carry that with you the rest of your career. And like, what's your class motto?
• 24:57
  Speaker C: No calling too great, ma'.
• 24:58
  Speaker A: Am. No calling too great. So, I mean, that's really kind of another value that you'll think about and carry and wear on your heart. You'll wear it on your ring. Values are important, and I definitely think.
• 25:11
  Speaker C: That values are derived from some of the mentors we choose to follow. So I wanted to shift the conversation towards some of your mentors who were some of your most influential mentors and what qualities made them effective and how do you approach mentoring others now?
• 25:26
  Speaker A: So I never had a mentor, which I think probably not surprising given when I came into the Army. When I came in the Army, I think about 1% of the army were women officers. And I always had. All my bosses were men. I never had a woman. I never. I never had a mentor. So there certainly were leaders. As I mentioned earlier, I would look at and say, that's okay, I like that. Or I don't like that. Probably if I had to pick somebody who kind of mentored me, it's my husband. Joe's a couple years older. And then as I said, he taught mbsnl, but Usually the conversation would be something like, maureen, I don't lead the way you do or you don't lead like I do. So I'm not sure my advice is going to help. We just led differently. But I would certainly vent and talk to him and it helped because we shared the same profession. And so he would understand. He understood the profession and not always what I was going through. And once in a while he would say, I think this is happening because you're a woman. And I would say, I can't go there. That's not helpful. And it's not my issue. It's their issue. So I did not have a mentor. And I'm not sure, quite honestly, I think about the women that work for me, and I probably didn't mentor them. But now, I mean, in the last few years, I've been mentoring a woman swimmer at St. Bonaventure. I started mentoring her when she was a junior and she just graduated in May. And we would meet once a month. I had a rite of leadership philosophy and she got a job. And we had our last call in May, and at the end of the call she said, maureen, I have a question. And I said, what's that? And she said, can we continue to talk once a month? Which just kind of melted my heart. But she and I have a nice. Some people say you'd be my mentor. It's like, I don't even know you. You need to develop a relationship with someone. Anyway, I still chat. Her name is Maggie, and I still chat with Maggie once a month. And she's doing fine. She has a job with benefits, so I'm very proud of her. But she was a swimmer, and that's kind of was the connection. I did go see her swim in a meet. So do you have a mentor?
• 27:46
  Speaker C: I do. In high school, I think I had a few mentors without realizing it. My football coach, Coach Todd Smith, my lacrosse coach, Coach Blake, very close with them. My history teacher, Dr. Hanson. I learned a lot of my core values from them in addition to my father. And I think now, like West Point kind of cultivates that leadership experience by giving you a mentor in the form of a team leader. But in addition to the team leaders that I've had when I was a plebe, my mentor now is Brian Samuel. So he is a firsty and he's kind of taken me under his wing and taught me a lot about leadership. He was in the operational army before he came to West Point, so he had a bit of a different perspective to provide And I really appreciate that.
• 28:31
  Speaker A: So he's prior service. I love that you talk about a coach, two coaches, and a teacher. When our son was here at West Point, he went to the West Point Elementary School, and he had a teacher, Mr. Sherman. And he was such a. He just made such an impact on Jay and his classmates when they were firsties. They took him out to dinner, and I just thought that was so wonderfully taught. History, and Jay loved history. And, you know, it kind of goes back to. People don't realize the impact that they've had on somebody. And so you said, you told me earlier, you do talk to your football coach regularly. I do. Tell people you need to connect with those people and let them know the impact they've had on your life. Because I wrote a letter to the gentleman that got me, Pat Oehler, who got me to go to grad school, and I wrote to him a few years ago, and I said, I don't know if you realize what happened to my career. You know, you allowed me to go to graduate school, then to go to West Point, and because of that, it changed my career, and I ended up becoming the Master of the Sword, which I think you'll agree is the coolest title.
• 29:47
  Speaker C: It is very cool.
• 29:48
  Speaker A: In the United States army, and I like to say the world. So, yeah, it's. Mentors can be powerful. And I'll be honest, my husband, probably once a week, he is talking to somebody that he taught that he worked with in BSNL or he's connected with. A couple weeks ago, a woman that worked for him spent the night at our house. And it's just wonderful when you have those connections and then you reach back and say, thank you. You have no idea what you did for me. So right to you. Does your lacrosse coach know? Your football coach pregnant?
• 30:25
  Speaker C: Yeah, they know. They definitely know. I think gratitude is one of my biggest core values. I think it's very important. And I try to write a thank you note to someone once a week.
• 30:35
  Speaker A: Do you really?
• 30:35
  Speaker C: Yes, ma'. Am.
• 30:36
  Speaker A: Good for you. Thank you. That is a lost start. Who taught you to do that? Your folks?
• 30:42
  Speaker C: I was at a leadership conference, and somebody mentioned it, and I wrote it down. I thought it was a great idea. And the gratification. It's really important to let those people know that what they've done for you.
• 30:54
  Speaker A: That'S in my book, too, is note writing. And when we do these programs at Thayer, there's a program we have called open enrollment, and so I usually do those, and I write a note to everybody in the program. So they get an envelope at the end and there's a handwritten note in there for men. One star stationary. My dad was a note writer and this is actually in my book. When I was here, he was still teaching at St. Bonaventure. He teaches, he taught. One of the courses he taught was public speaking. And I said, do they do any kind of PowerPoint presentation? And my dad said, what is that? And I said, let me come to your class and let me teach a session of your class. And I did that. It was just wonderful to teach with my dad, who taught at st. Bonaventure for 52 years. And I get back to West Point and a few days later a very nice thank you note from my dad arrived in the mail. It's actually in my book, a picture of that note. So good for you. You will go far writing a thank you note because people just don't do it anymore.
• 32:05
  Speaker C: It's all too uncommon nowadays.
• 32:06
  Speaker A: It is. And it's so people rely on texts and emails. Actually, when Maggie graduated from St. Bonaventure, the gift I gave her was a pen and stationary with her initials on it.
• 32:20
  Speaker C: But it makes people appreciate it that much more now that it's not an everyday thing.
• 32:25
  Speaker A: It is, it's powerful. And I think with young people, especially somebody looking for a job, it's not your don't have to deal with this when you've had an interview to write a handwritten note to somebody that can be a difference maker. That and leadership philosophy. Definitely, yes.
• 32:44
  Speaker C: So for our final question, this is a question that we ask every guest and I think is a staple of this podcast. So knowing what you know now, what advice would you offer your younger self?
• 32:54
  Speaker A: That's always a good question because usually I flip it. But I think I would tell myself to read more, read more about the profession and spend more time reflecting. Because to be honest, almost the more I learn about leading, I'll think I'm not sure I was a great leader or good leader, the more I learn about it because I'm around some really wonderful leaders, many of whom are West Point graduates. But I think to reflect and read more and probably be more intentional about the way in which I lead. So what would you tell your younger self?
• 33:33
  Speaker C: That's a hard one.
• 33:34
  Speaker A: How old are you?
• 33:35
  Speaker C: 20 now.
• 33:35
  Speaker A: Oh, you're 20? What would you tell your 10 year old self?
• 33:39
  Speaker C: I think the same things we've been discussing here. I mean, be intentional with everything you do. The little things matter and they build up and at the end of the day, the little things are the big things.
• 33:49
  Speaker A: So I had a brigade commander, and he would say, if you take care of the little things, the big things will take care of themselves. So he was a detail guy. It's like, make sure you shoot well on the range. You know, make sure we meet all the. Do everything we're supposed to do. And the big stuff will take care of itself. Because there's a book out, it's called Don't Sweat the Small Stuff. And he's like, we need to sweat the small stuff.
• 34:14
  Speaker C: So my father was a West Point graduate, class of 95, and it's the same thing he tells me. So I definitely try to live by that every day.
• 34:23
  Speaker A: Good.
• 34:25
  Speaker C: General LaBeouf, thank you for your time today and for this great conversation about philosophy, fitness, and leader development. On behalf of Colonel Pat Sullivan, the director of the Martin war Institute, and Dr. Charlie Fate, the director of this podcast series, it is my pleasure to present you with this rare and coveted MWI coin. Thank you, ma'.
• 34:41
  Speaker A: Am. Oh, thank you. And you all are not able to see this, but when we get off the air, I will give Parker my coin and my coin. On the front. When I retired, I still wanted a coin because I thought it was so cool. And on the front, it's got the master of the sword, with the sword and the years I was the master of the sword. And on the back, it says, be the standard. And so for all of you that are out there, especially cadets, listening, remember, leaders must be the standard. And have a great army day, because that's what I always used to say to the cadets. Hooah.
• 35:19
  Speaker B: This has been an episode of Five Questions for a General, a production of the Modern War Institute of West Point. If you like what you heard today, please download, like, subscribe and share this podcast to help us reach an even larger audience. All statements in this podcast represent the personal views of the speakers and do not represent an official position of the United States Military Academy or the United States government.