The Top Floor: What is "The Top Floor"?

Picture from Wiki Transformer MUX

My findings and what has worked for me and how I can show them you, is what inspired me to write this blog. So why 'The Top Floor'? Because it is:

What I have to improve to get to where I want and who I want to be;

my brain,
a great leader
and the top spot.

Having my passion for fighter planes, I developed the habit of reading in the simplest possible way: because I found out about a book for the F15E Strike Eagle, a plane I knew and liked but knew nothing about. So I picked up said book and ended up chewing it in 7 days, a double record for me: The quickest I have ever read a book, and the first book I have finished in whatever years.

Unconsciously, I started learning the ways of leadership by reading how commanders, generals and squadron leaders managed their people, resources and results. Even things that are not the main topic of the stories -the initial deployment for war- helps you understand how people feel, how leaders resolve and what their team judge when things don't go as they expect.

It is this way that after several books I started to understand my colleagues and my teams differently. I started asking different kind of questions, and started thinking about their hearts, looking at their eyes for a validation that they are engaged, all at the same time as I started to become a manager and needed new tools.

Learning from both the example of great bosses and these stories became and still is a fundamental part of my development, and the important part is to understand from where you can get your source so you can focus on it and exploit it.

All these thoughts and brain burning about how to do things better have come after self realization and it is what I want to share. Every day we have to leave behind the heavy weight, the negative, the destructive attitudes and reinvent ourselves for tomorrow. Change must be continuos and only with change you can move to the next step in your life.

That being said, the method I use is : after each book, I take notes on quotes and situations that inspire me, so I can analyze and write about them. Here is my list of current books (at the time of this post because it will expand more :) and for a great picture of this first post, let's share the cover of the one that started it all.

The following is for strictly military books that I've read and inspired me to write this blog about leadership:

Strike Eagle . William Smallwood.
Warthog. William Smallwood.
Apache. Ed Macy.
Viper Pilot. Dan Hampton.
Vipers in the Storm. Keith Rozenkranz
Skunk Works. Ben Rich,
A Nightmare´s Prayer. Michael Franzak.
Apollo 13. Jim Lovell and Kugler.
Sea Harrier Over the Falklands. Sharkey Ward.
Stealth Fighter. William O'Connor.

Needless to say, others books have crossed my hands that are not military but still focused on leadership, such as The mythical Man month and The Art of War, and you can expect to see references to them as well.