Colonel (Ret) Lance Lewis, PhD, USMC

Colonel (Ret) Lance Lewis, PhD, USMC Speaking Topics

• The Burden of Responsibility

  The Burden of Responsibility explores what true leadership looks like when outcomes are uncertain and pressure is high. Using General Dwight D. Eisenhower's D-Day decision as a central case study, this talk examines why great leaders accept responsibility before they know the result, and how that act builds trust, credibility and psychological safety. Eisenhower's pre-written failure letter illustrates that leadership is not about avoiding blame, but about owning decisions made with imperfect information.

  The lesson is reinforced with a modern personal example of high visibility leadership under scrutiny, showing how responsibility still rests with the leader even when actions are approved and executed flawlessly. Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of the difference between accountability and blame, practical tools to model responsibility in everyday leadership, and concrete actions, such as drafting their own failure note, to strengthen trust, support their teams and lead decisively when it matters most.

• Beyond the Hero: Leadership Lessons from Military Movies

  This talk takes popular films as a lens to explore leadership decision-making and team dynamics under pressure. By separating cinematic myth from real world practice, such as exaggerated call signs, lone-hero narratives, and simplified command structures, the lecture challenges audiences to think critically about how leadership is portrayed versus how it is actually exercised. Film scenes are used to “set the scene” placing viewers inside moments of uncertainty, risk, and consequence where leadership choices matter most.

  Rather than critiquing movies for realism alone the lecture reframes them as case studies: What behaviors inspire trust? Where does Hollywood get leadership right, and dangerously wrong? Attendees will gain tools to recognize effective leadership traits, understand the importance of teamwork and accountability over individual heroics, and apply these lessons to their own organizations. The result is a highly engaging accessible discussion that uses familiar media to spark deeper insight into real world leadership.

• The Transformational Decade

  The world is moving at an accelerated pace and many leaders feel like they are caught flat-footed. Using the framework of the rise of China's military, this lecture reframes the debate over Chinese military and naval dominance as a leadership challenge, not just a force structure problem. Using the rapid pace of technological change in the 2020s and the widespread misreading of China's military growth, the talk challenges headline-driven thinking and explores how leaders must make consequential decisions amid uncertainty, incomplete data, and accelerating innovation.

  Drawing on historical analogies, modern naval competition, and organizational failures to adapt, the lecture argues that power is not defined by size or speed of acquisition, but by adaptability, integration, and the ability to learn faster than competitors. Attendees are invited to think like leaders responsible for shaping institutions whose decisions today will define operational reality decades from now. The session emphasizes judgment, imagination, and strategic patience as decisive leadership traits in an era where technology changes faster than doctrine, and narratives can be just as dangerous as adversaries. Attendees will learn how to separate capability from narrative, why adaptability is a leadership responsibility, how long-term decisions shape future battle spaces, and why networks, people and integration matter more than scale.

• The Legion in Developing Leaders

  At its root, leadership is the action of leading a group of people or an organization to a common goal. While that is simply stated, putting it into practice is complicated and challenging. This lecture uses the framework of a Roman legion to explore timeless military leadership lessons and how they apply today. How you lead and what you're leading matter a great deal and by looking at the different levels of a Roman legion, from the tactical to the strategic, leaders today can enhance their own leadership journey. The Roman legion used technological adaptation, relentless training, common operating procedures to reduce confusion and enhance clarity, and were continually changing and transforming.

  Attendees will take away a deep appreciation of successful leadership traits seen through the eyes of the Roman legion, will recognize the difference between being a manager and a leader and how those skills are different, and will have concrete action steps as they step back into their organizations.

• A Leader’s Most Powerful Tool: Integrity

  Integrity in leaders is often praised in theory but too often fails when tested in practice. This talk explores the meaning and cost of integrity through pivotal moments and military history, where decisions made under pressure reveal character more clearly than any speech or oath. Drawing on examples from ancient battles to modern conflicts, the presentation examines leaders and soldiers who chose honesty, duty, and moral courage even when those choices carry personal risk or strategic disadvantage. Military history provides a stark backdrop: lives at stake, imperfect information, and consequences that echo far beyond the moment. Through these stories, integrity is shown not as a rigid idealism, but as a disciplined alignment between values and actions. The talk challenges the audience to consider how integrity functions when rules are unclear, authority is flawed, or success tempts compromise. Ultimately, it connects lessons from the battlefield to everyday leadership, showing how integrity builds trust, preserves legitimacy, and shapes outcomes long after the immediate crisis has passed.