About Tom Ruby

Tom Ruby is CEO of Bluegrass Critical Thinking Solutions. With a decade of corporate small business consulting experience, he looks forward to helping you take your time back and balance your inherent desire to work on the details with your real need to focus on corporate vision. A retired Air Force Colonel who served 26 years on active duty in positions from Squadron Intelligence Officer to Director of Special Programs with a $4 billion annual program portfolio, he carefully crafted expertise in strategic planning, program management and leadership development. He was Associate Dean of the Air Command and Staff College where he developed exchange programs with the NATO School, the French École Militaire, the German General Staff College and Poland’s National Defense University. He served on General Petraeus’ Joint Strategic Assessment Team as well as in three combat deployments. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Kentucky, and actively mentors graduate students through the American Political Science Association. He is widely published and speaks globally on topics from critical thinking, to leadership, to strategy, to morality in warfare.

Strategy – What it is and isn’t

So many of our senior leaders in all segments of industry are so mired in the day-to-day minutiae of their companies that they convince themselves they have no time to look out into the future, let alone bring together their directors for long-term planning projects. We have said in past posts that getting out of the [...]

By |2021-02-10T13:43:57-05:00July 13th, 2015|Blog|0 Comments

Compassionate or Jerk…What Makes a Good Boss?

Thanks to Derek Brown of Mortensen for sending me the article from Harvard Business Review on "Why Compassion Is a Better Managerial Practice Than Toughness" (https://hbr.org/2015/05/why-compassion-is-a-better-managerial-tactic-than-toughness/?utm_source=newsletter_leadership&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=leadership010813&cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-leadership-_-leadership010813&referral=00206). Interestingly, soon after Derek sent me the article, I saw in the current edition of the Atlantic an article titled "Why It Pays To Be A Jerk" (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/06/why-it-pays-to-be-a-jerk/392066/). So [...]

By |2021-02-10T13:40:14-05:00June 17th, 2015|Blog|0 Comments

Why Prepare Your Mind… (Part II)

Last week we talked about preparing your mind daily.  We discussed the importance of staying at your level of responsibility, avoiding the pitfalls of reverting to being a doer if your job is to lead. Discipline in time management, keeping your inbox clean and walking around were key points in keeping your head above the [...]

By |2021-02-10T13:38:01-05:00May 19th, 2015|Blog|0 Comments

What You Do In One Equation

Your Activity = ∫Ax x Bx x Cx… For any activity you undertake in life, from selling a horse, to arriving at work on time, to planning a vacation, to cooking dinner, certain variables interact with each other to determine the outcome. For centuries, many business and government leaders have known this to be the case. Today [...]

By |2021-02-10T13:34:29-05:00April 30th, 2015|Blog|0 Comments

The Power of Idea Connections

The higher you rise in any field the more important it is for you to be open to changing your mind. Steve Levitt and Stephen Dubner of Freakonomics (http://freakonomics.com/) fame say that the single greatest mistake leaders make is ignoring evidence. Maria Popova, the brilliant thinker and connector at Brain Pickings (http://www.brainpickings.org/) says you should "allow [...]

By |2021-02-10T13:30:17-05:00April 28th, 2015|Blog|0 Comments
Go to Top