REACH Interview Series: Tom Kolditz

Dec 15, 2017

Tom Kolditz had quite a few things to say about leadership! Currently, the founding Director of the Ann and John Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University, Tom is a retired Brigadier General, who led the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at West Point for 12 years and was also Director of the Leadership Development Program at the Yale School of Management. And if that isn’t enough, among his many national and international accomplishments, Tom also happens to be an expert skydiver who served 10 years as the senior instructor for the West Point Sport Parachute Team.

The Surprising Benefits of Short-Term Business Travel

Much has been written about long-term expatriate assignments, but for many of us, a more common “assignment” is the short-term business trip — that four-day jaunt to Dubai or the there-and-back trip to Buenos Aires.

Have you ever sat down to work on a business pitch… or your resume… or an important speech you’ve been ask to give… and then realized it would be much less stressful to check the sports scores… or play solitaire… or check Facebook?

We all know that in a foreign culture, one of the most important skills to develop is the ability to translate, to learn to speak the new language — or at least master a few key phrases.

You’re an executive at a large company starting to do an increasing amount of business overseas.

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