Major General Matthew D. Smith, U.S. Army - "This Ain’t the Boy Scouts"

Moments in Leadership

This Ain’t the Boy Scouts – U.S. Army Major General Matthew D. Smith

In this episode of Moments in Leadership, Army Major General Matthew D. Smith and host David B. Armstrong discuss the early parts of his life and career, concluding with his time holding battlespace in Afghanistan without a workup cycle to support that style of operation. His insights offer a different spice to the typical Moments in Leadership ranks as they take into account both National Guard and U.S. Army perspectives. Listeners will hear similarities across this discussion with other Moments in Leadership and will reinforce core leadership traits.

Understanding the difference between child’s play and the real consequences of actual leadership is one of the first hurdles a military leader must overcome in their journey. A leader has real responsibilities, ethically and legally, to uphold and must be ruthless in carrying them out, as literal lives depend on it. School and training courses can only prepare you so much and you must learn both academic and practical skills. The only thing you can’t get back is time. Leaders need to learn from those who have gone before them and not make the leadership mistake of making a mistake someone learned before you.

Being liked is a good skill to have as a leader but being liked is not the end goal of leadership. Subordinates will take care of leaders who take care of them and let those who believe they are ‘above it all’ be all alone above them. Subordinates’ perspectives should be taken into account, but mission success does dictate all. This is a balancing act and an enduring one leaders must undertake.

Standards are standards since they are non-negotiable and are often written in others’ blood. To rebuild an organization, one must work on building from the ground up and reinforcing the basics, regardless of what they are, and reinforcing the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’.

Major General Smith concludes with the importance of understanding the purpose, or goal, of a mission being more important than the task, or how, of the mission. He further discusses how understanding the subordinates below you and how the application of a ‘Napoleon’s Corporal’ is crucially important to success as they are the lowest echelon to carry out the actual mission and need to understand the stated purpose. This episode builds off previous Moments in Leadership and shows how core traits of leadership and followership are universal, even in the U.S. Army.

Thank you for supporting the project (below)

Please consider supporting this project on Supercast: Moments In Leadership Supercast

Want to support the project AND look cool at the gym or when you take your blouse off for a working party? Grab a cool tee shirt here from Mission Essential Gear, where every order supports this project AND donates back to Patrol Base Abbate

Relevant Resources & Other Mentioned Episodes:

LtGen David Bellon and the 20th Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, SgtMaj Carlos Ruiz – A Command Team Briefing to Alpha Company TBS 2022 (themiloffice.com)

Vice Admiral (Retired) William R. Merz, USN – At 1000 Feet, Leadership Can Crush You (themiloffice.com)

What is Moments in Leadership?

Moments in Leadership is a podcast where you will hear firsthand about the careers of senior military leaders as they share their unique and individual experiences. Moments in Leadership will immerse you in real-life stories where you will learn about the challenging situations these accomplished leaders faced and discover the lessons they learned early in their careers that were the most influential in developing their overall leadership style.

Conceptualized by a group of friends who served together as young officers in the early to mid-1990s sitting around a firepit telling funny leadership stories, Moments in Leadership is designed to provide some relatable context to the formal leadership training leaders of all ranks and services receive throughout their military careers through the power of storytelling.

Why Should You Support this project?

I realize all of the leaders who listen to the episodes are at different levels of life, and my goal is to be able to have this project remain free and available to anyone who wants it and your donations help go towards that. Your donations go towards offsetting my costs of producing high-quality episodes. Additionally, since this is a part-time hobby project for me, I'm forced to outsource a good deal of work to others to maintain a regular publishing schedule. Your donations help offset these costs as well.

Check out my Supercast site and see if any level is a good fit for helping:

Connect with Us:

Visit the Moments in Leadership website:

Follow us on Instagram:

Follow us on Twitter:

Email us: [e-mail]

Other Podcasts Interviews with David B. Armstrong

Scuttlebutt Podcast EP 38

Former Action Guys Podcast EP 161

Former Action Guys Podcast EP 141

Former Action Guys Podcast EP 60

Former Action Guys Podcast EP 54

About the Host:

David B. Armstrong, CFA, is President and Co-Founder of Monument Wealth Management, an independent wealth management firm he started in 2008 in Alexandria, Va. David received his BA from the University of South Carolina in Government & International Relations and his MBA at the University of South Carolina's Moore School of Business in International Finance. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant through the Navy ROTC program and served on Active Duty in the Marine Corps from 1990-1997 as an Artillery Officer and then received a secondary MOS as a Tank Officer. He re-entered the Selected Marine Corps Reserves in 2003 and served in several billets across the Artillery, Tank, and Light Armored Reconnaissance communities. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in late 2018.