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.

Learning to Speak Up When You’re from a Culture of Deference

Many of us are uncomfortable speaking with people of higher status.

The material in this post is adapted from my new book Reach: A New Strategy to Help You Step Outside Your Comfort Zone, Rise to the Challenge, and Build Confidence (launching January 24, 2017 with Penguin Random House).

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.

Imagine you’re at a networking event in the United States and you hear your colleague make the following statement to a potential employer: “… I’d be very interested in learning more about your company to see if there might be a fit for me.

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