Major General Brook J. “Tank” Leonard has more than 3,000 flight hours in aircraft including the F-16 and F-35, with 576 of them in combat. He is a graduate of the Air Force Academy and the USAF Weapons School. We asked him what Boyd means for leaders.
Fighter aviation and Boyd
Tank explains why he chose fighter aviation and what energy-maneuverability theory means for agility. Navy TOPGUN instructors took Boyd’s ideas to school. Weapons School builds distributed leadership. The debrief closes the feedback loop.
Lessons from Mattis
Tank shares leadership lessons from Secretary Mattis. Effects-based operations and value-focused thinking have limits, and he explains where they apply.
Space and team orientation
Space is a new domain with a new culture, and cognitive diversity gives it strength. IOHAI explains how a team orients together. Red teaming challenges assumptions and improves how decisions get made. Tank describes leading a fearless organization with psychological safety. Information flow matters more than the jet, and merging cultures takes work.
Tank has led in combat and in space, and team orientation runs through everything he describes.
What assumption would a red team find first in your current plan?
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Written by Ponch Rivera with AI assistance in production. The full conversation is in the player below.