As a kid, Ed Ruggero wanted to be a soldier or a writer when he grew up. He got to be both. A 1980 graduate of West Point, Ruggero is the author of seven books, including Duty First: A Year in the Life of West Point and the Making of American Leaders. He has developed a successful career as a speaker and author by applying to the civilian world what he learned about leadership in the military.

According to Ruggero, the two worlds are not nearly as far apart as many might think. In his travels as a speaker, he continually meets people who assume that military leadership has nothing to do with leadership in the civilian world.

"People assume that in the military, there is a 'do this or else' kind of autocratic leadership," he says. "It's true that exists, but there are limits to what it can accomplish. On the other hand, there are almost no limits to what can be achieved by leaders who inspire people. It takes true imagination and grit to get someone to do what you want them to do but to let them do it in their own way. If you don't, you're micromanaging--whether you're in the Army or in business."

Ruggero's audiences have included the CIA, the Merchant Marine Academy, police forces, college students and business groups. Depending on the audience, his talk topics range from leader development to ethical leadership and the practice of leadership.

In launching himself as an author, Ruggero was the lucky recipient of what he terms "an unorthodox break." His last assignment in the Army was teaching English at West Point. He succeeded in convincing best-selling author Tom Clancy to come talk to the cadets in his class--despite the fact that he had no money to pay for his appearance. Clancy spent two days on campus, with Ruggero as his escort.

"I later sent him 100 pages of a manuscript I had written," Ruggero recalls, "which I now know is a very rude and boorish thing to do. But Clancy really liked it, and when he couldn't reach me to talk to me about it, he called his agent instead." All of a sudden, without having to knock on doors and try to sell his work, Ruggero had professional representation. He has never forgotten this break, and, although he doesn't read unsolicited manuscripts sent to him, he does try to help other writers get started. "If writers don't help other writers, who will?" he says.

Ruggero now is trying to boost the speaking side of his career. "What really sells a speaker is personality," he says. "It's true that having written a book confers a certain cachet on a speaker, but that's not enough. A speaker makes a connection with the audience based on his or her personality. It also helps to be passionate about your subject, and leadership is a topic that I'm passionate about."

What, in Ruggero's opinion, constitutes a leader? "Leaders have to be compassionate and have respect for other people," he says. A sense of duty is important, too, especially in the military, and so is integrity. I think this last trait is very important because if a leader says one thing and does another, his or her subordinates can sense that and the leadership role breaks down."

Ruggero admits there is a perception that our culture lacks leaders of the stature seen in generations past, but he says that's because we're looking for them in the wrong places. "The marketing of sports figures and entertainers has distracted us from seeing true leadership," he says, "but Sept. 11 showed us real heroes. Not everyone can be a hero on the same scale as a Gen. MacArthur, but what they lack in scale and drama, they make up for by quietly demonstrating leadership on a daily basis."

In writing Duty First, Ruggero interviewed West Point graduates, going as far back as classes from the early 1940s. One man he interviewed recalled a great leader who demonstrated his character during the airborne invasion of Italy in 1943. "He remembered that this man was always in the spot that was the most dangerous," Ruggero says. "He was always there taking risks along with his men. We saw the same thing on Sept. 11, when police and firefighters and even ordinary people took tremendous personal risks to save others--doing things like helping people with handicaps down the stairwells to safety."

Although Ruggero left the service in 1991 to pursue his work as a writer and speaker, it was his writings on leadership, his talents as a storyteller and the success of his first five novels that brought him full circle with an assignment from the Pentagon in 1998. Asked to co-write the newly revised manual Army Leadership, which is used to teach this subject throughout the service, he became the first civilian to write an Army manual.

--Diane Kukich

Editor's Note: Ed Ruggero lives in Wallingford, Pa., with his wife, Marcia Noa, son, Colin, AS 2005, and 16-year-old daughter, Dealyn.