Bob Danmyer - No Natural Born Leaders: A Study in the Art of Leadership

by:
BOB DANMYER

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2012 by BOB DANMYER. All rights reserved.

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Published by AuthorHouse 06/20/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4685-4608-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-4607-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-4606-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012901290

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Contents

Special thanks to Keith, Lance, Lenny and Leslie

Bob Danmyer

Born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1941, he attended high school at Baltimore City College, graduating in 1959. Bob has also obtained an AA degree in Business and a BA in Human Relations, and is a graduate of the United States Army Command and General Staff College. He secured his first management position in 1967 at Maryland Cup Corporation. Well known by the brand name, Sweetheart Products, Maryland Cup Corporation was sold in 1982. However, the brand name Sweetheart Products has survived. Maryland Cup was a fortune five hundred company and at one time the largest manufacturer of paper cups in the world. During his time at Maryland Cup he managed three separated departments and had a total of nine supervisors that reported directly to him. He was instrumental in the Corporation being awarded many awards for their achievements in narrow web flexographic printing from the Flexographic Technical Association. The departments that he managed for many years lead the Owings Mills, Maryland Plant in the number of monthly Plant Managers Awards for Excellence.

While working at Maryland Cup in 1965 he joined the Maryland National Guards 20th Special Forces (Green Berets). He served in Special Forces for fourteen years working his way up from Private to Captain. After transferring from the Special Forces, due to injuries he sustained from a serious military parachuting accident, he continued his part time military service serving in several other Guard units.

In 1985 he went to work full-time in the National Guard system where he served on the Adjutant General of Marylands staff for a total of seventeen years, as both a Military Technician and State of Maryland government employee. Bob Danmyer was also an instructor during his full and part time military career at the Maryland Military Academy and taught leadership to future military leaders.

Bob Danmyer holds numerous military decorations the highest of which is the Armys Legion of Merit and two State of Maryland Distinguished Service Crosses, the latter being the highest awards given by the State of Maryland. He retired from the military in 2001 at the rank of Brevet Colonel with thirty-six years of service.

After his military service he went to work for the Maryland Military Department as the Program Director of the About Face, drug demand reduction program. When the program was discontinued in 2003, Bob left the Military Department and went to work for the Department of Army as a Department of Defense (DOD) contractor at Fort Detrick, Maryland. He was put in charge of the armed security force charge with maintaining the security and safety of the almost 8000 people that lived and worked at the facility.

With a total forty-five years of leadership and management experience, Bob Danmyer retired in 2008, and lives with his wife Leslie in Hanover, Pennsylvania. Today he writes, travels, plays golf, is an avid hunter and also enjoys radio-controlled model aviation.

Leadership, the word alone inspires thoughts of Caesar, Richard the Lion Hearted, Washington, Churchill, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Reagan. Where and how did they learn leadership? Think about this, they all had military backgrounds. Of the worlds great learning institutions I question how many have even attempted to teach leadership. The military teaches leadership at almost every level to those who will lead their soldiers, sailors and airmen; how many corporations do the same? More over, when have you seen a university class schedule that offered a course called Leadership 101, or Senior Leadership? A course entitled Introduction to Management is not about leadership. The words leader and manager have two very different meanings.

Some people like to think that leaders are born, that the craft comes naturally, that they need no training. While it is true that some personalities are more suited to the leadership role, without training so called natural born leaders sometimes make the worst leaders. Diamonds have to be polished in order to shine!

How about the worlds great corporate institutions, surely they are teaching leadership. If so are they doing it at the lowest level? Where does the mechanic who gets promoted to shop foreman and suddenly put in charge get leadership training? Also, I believe with the number of people serving in the military decreasing, there is a dangerous shortage of good leaders and a growing number of bad ones. If you do not believe this, talk to your friends and family members about their immediate boss, or their company. Ask how they are being treated as workers and more importantly human beings? The answers you will hear are the primary reasons I am writing this book.

As a former leadership instructor and supervisor in the military, the government and the corporate world I can no longer be silent! Today more then ever this great country needs great leaders to rise to the occasion and keep America strong. Where is the next Washington or Kennedy? While this book will not instantly make you a great leader, it will improve your leadership skills, and challenge your mind to learn more about this important subject.

CHAPTER

Many people look around the Untied States today and ask, What Happened to America? are we losing our greatness? How did we arrive at our current state? Why does it cost so much to live in this great nation? Where are all the jobs? I hear people say, I dont understand how this all happened. Why is it that the Japanese and Chinese have out-paced us in the world market place? It should be so apparent, but our nations leaders have just recently found the vision to accurately define the cause of these problems. Maybe I can shed some light on what is at the core of our current dilemma. We live in a modern, mobile society, with a thirst for fuel like no other nation on earth. We like to be warm in the winter and cool in the summer. We are spoiled. But, the cost of energy is ten times higher today than it was fifty years ago and every adult American owns one or two cars, and I am not talking only about the wealthy. We have to live in a house with four bedrooms and it must be at least three thousand square feet in size. Because of these two key points, this nation uses 25% of the worlds crude oil! Because Americans are large people we love large cars, but now we call them SUVs (Sport Utility Vehicles). Most Americans are just physically too big for small cars; therefore we are slow to be drawn to them. Greed has caused American businesses to spend the last thirty years sending all of our manufacturing jobs overseas. You cannot pick up a piece of clothing today that is made in America. Also, American employers have forgotten how to treat their most valuable resource, their employees. What has happened to the signs that used to hang over the factory gates that said, Through these gates walk the finest people in the world our employees? To Big Business I would ask, do you think that if American jobs go overseas because of cheap labor, Americans will have money to buy your products?