Every year, millions of managers and supervisors get promoted into management positions without learning how to successfully lead a team. As a result, many of them find themselves at the top of the corporate ladder while lacking the requisite training to lead. And even for those who have been leaders for a while, they may not truly understand why building their skills as managers should be their number one priority.
Aimed primarily at helping first-line supervisors and mid-level managers overcome leadership challenges, “My Battlefield, Your Office” is a senior-management must read. This book can also help up-and-coming managers who are taking on an increasing amount of responsibility where strong leadership skills are necessary.
Author Justin Constantine, a Marine lieutenant colonel who led a team of Marines in Iraq, shares invaluable lessons that are critical to surviving and succeeding, both on the frontline and in the workplace. His biggest personal challenge was overcoming an injury that should have killed him: a calamitous gunshot wound to the head by an enemy sniper in Iraq.
We all experience adversity in our lives, at home, as leaders in our communities and in the workplace. Constantine’s Marine training helped him survive and thrive and he shares these survival tips in “My Battlefield, Your Office.” Through frontline analogies and specific personal experiences, Constantine translates the leadership skills he gained in the Marine Corps and while on the frontline into everyday language business leaders can understand.
“My Battlefield, Your Office” includes 15 impactful and easy-to-read chapters. Each section focuses on specific leadership skills and leaves the reader with key takeaways by laying out five guiding principles: 1) Why taking care of your team should be your number one priority; 2) Defining what it means to lead from the front; 3) How change means opportunity; 4) Why it’s okay to ask for help; and 5) Why taking responsibility for your actions is key.
Justin Constantine is a former Marine and attorney and is now an inspirational speaker and leadership consultant. He advises the corporate community on military issues and sustaining employee peak performance. He survived a gunshot wound to the head while serving in Iraq.
Justin retired from the Marine Corps with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He now serves on the board of directors of several national nonprofit organizations. He also co-founded the Veteran Success Resource Group in 2015, a military nonprofit that provides full spectrum resources for veterans and their families. He is also a senior advisor at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, where he leads a team focused on employment opportunities for wounded veterans and their caregivers.
Justin speaks at numerous corporate, educational and military events about leadership, the upside of change, teamwork and overcoming adversity. His writing on military and leadership issues has been featured in such outlets as CNN, Time, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, Forbes magazine, USA Today, Business Insider, Stars and Stripes and the Huffington Post.
Justin graduated from James Madison University in 1992 with a double major in English and Political Science and a minor in German. He graduated from the University of Denver School of Law in 1998, and joined the U.S. Marine Corps after his second year of law school. While on active duty, he served as a judge advocate specializing in criminal law and worked as a defense counsel and criminal prosecutor.
He deployed to Iraq in 2006, serving as a Civil Affairs team leader while attached to an infantry battalion. While on a routine combat patrol, Justin was shot in the head by a sniper. Although the original prognosis was that he had been killed in action, Justin survived thanks to risks taken by his fellow Marines and a courageous Navy Corpsman. For his service in Iraq, he earned the Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon and Navy-Marine Corps Commendation Medal.
After recovering from his injuries, Justin worked at the U.S. Department of Justice and as counsel for the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. More recently, he worked for several years with the FBI as an attorney on a counterterrorism team. Justin was the Honor Graduate of his class at the Marine Corps Command and Staff College, and in 2015 he graduated with distinction from Georgetown University with a Master of Laws degree focusing on National Security.
