Standing Tall: Leadership Lessons in the Life of a Soldier by Robert F. Foley. Casemate, 2022, 240 pp.
Retired US Army Lieutenant General Robert Foley’s autobiography, Standing Tall, marks his journey from his childhood in suburban Massachusetts through to his retirement from the Army in 2000 after 37 years in uniform. Foley structures the book around central points in his life, focusing on key leadership roles or situations that could impart a leadership lesson.
The photo of Foley on the book’s front cover illustrates the type of officer and leader that he embodies. While he is a Medal of Honor recipient—which in itself can be incredibly defining—the placement of his award with the rest of his ribbons rather than hung around his neck speaks to the overall tone of the book and the humility and candor with which he has lived his life. The Medal of Honor is just one small aspect of Foley’s storied career; it is not the focus of the book. Instead, Foley interweaves his personal life through the narrative of his Army career, demonstrating the importance of not only the service but particularly of family to him.
A prevailing theme throughout the book is the value of networks and more importantly, of friendships built on trust and camaraderie. Vignettes of classmates and friends demonstrate their impact on the trajectory of Foley’s life. Great friendships and teamwork permeate every role he has held and often positively impacted his unit, including on one occasion when teamwork led to the smooth execution of an international exercise.
Although a couple of vignettes may read as somewhat cringeworthy, upon reflection the reader is able to see why Foley made certain decisions that ended up being the right decisions, despite perceptions at the time. While Foley sprinkles leadership lessons throughout the chapters, he also includes an afterword with additional thoughts on such lessons not covered earlier in the book.
Foley’s care and compassion for others are deeply rooted in his family-focused upbringing in Auburndale, Massachusetts. He started out his life with modest beginnings in a small two-bedroom duplex with his loving parents and older brother. The Foley family valued honesty, hard work, and a values-based lifestyle, all aspects that would make the Army appeal to him as a young man. His first job was delivering newspapers as a child.
He grew up playing sports within the limits of what his parents could afford. Economics drove his move from playing ice hockey to basketball when his size-16 skates needed to be special-ordered at an exorbitant price. His height—he now stands at six foot seven inches—as well led him to pursue new skills in basketball. His freshman year was humbling as he knew little about the sport, but he enlisted the help of the family’s landlord and built himself a basketball hoop that he mounted on the garage. He spent the summer polishing his skills while working evenings and weekends at a diner. At the end of his sophomore year, this personal investment prompted his basketball coach to convince his parents to let him participate in a summer-long basketball camp that vastly improved his skills. In his junior year, his high school team won the state championship but lost in the finals during his senior year; nevertheless, this led to his active recruitment by multiple universities. Yet all he needed was a visit to the US Military Academy at West Point to determine that that was his path and to jump start a fantastic career.
Standing Tall is a fascinating look into the life of a career soldier, but it also lays the foundation for officers and leaders in any field or at any level to build their personal leadership style. Foley approaches decision-making with a re-engineering frame of mind, asking four fundamental questions: What is it that we as leaders do? Why do we do it? Why do we do it that way? Is there a better way? The questions invariably improved efficiency, processes, and even Soldier’s daily lives. In one example, as the commanding general of the military district of Washington, Foley made a small, yet surprisingly controversial decision to change the Old Guard’s dress uniform buttons from brass to anodized brass, which did not require shining. That decision saved eight hours per week of time shining buttons which could then be reinvested in Soldier training. By asking these four simple questions, Foley was able to get to the root of an issue and make effective decisions in the best interest of Soldiers and the Army as a whole. The success of his methods is shown throughout the book in his stories.
This book is a great resource for new officers coming from all walks of life, because they will likely see something of themselves in Foley. Senior officers will also find it useful as they build leadership development programs for their junior officers and leaders. Such readers may find valuable lessons to share in Foley’s experiences as a young adult in particular. Foley was not an exceptional student in high school, but he put in the effort to invest in himself and found his niche in leading others with care, compassion, and innate authority.
A series of injuries and illness caused him to miss classes at West Point, threatening his chances of remaining with his year group, and he struggled to maintain his grades, but his network of friends and their tutelage kept him on track and enabled him to graduate on time—although at a less-than-ideal class rank. Still, this experience coupled with Foley’s success in the Army may be inspiring to young officers who may not have hit their academic stride in college. They may find that with time, routine professional military education, and solid leader development programs, they can achieve greatness like Foley.
Fortunately, Foley had the introspection, humility, and humor to put his story on paper and share his personal experiences, both good and bad, for the benefit of readers. Overall, the book is thoroughly enjoyable, and Foley’s stories are well-constructed and entertaining. He keeps the tone of the book light and engaging, and in just over 200 pages, he succinctly describes the leadership highlights of his life and the events that shaped his decisions. Standing Tall is easy to follow and offers a refreshing take on leadership in which Foley acknowledges his own evolving leadership style, the challenges he faced, and his coming to terms with decisions he made. While some of the topics are buzzword- and Army value-worthy, Foley provides the depth to demonstrate why each topic he discusses is important for good leadership.
Colonel Kirsten S. McFarland, USA