Battle Ready

Bob Carroll graduated West Point when he was 23, at the cusp of the Vietnam War, with a sobering thought: He knew a lot about tactics, planning and battlefield strategies. He knew little, he admits, about how to communicate his knowledge to others.

“I realized I wasn't the top of the class in communicating,” he says. “So I literally studied grammar. I studied how to read and write. I went to Toastmasters classes. I read every issue of Time magazine to improve my vocabulary.”

The education paid off. Carroll, 77, went on to lead a platoon and a company in the Vietnam War, and retired at the rank of colonel. Later, in civilian life, he worked his way up in senior leadership roles at community banks in Buffalo, N.Y., and coached executives in a variety of fields. He also went back to West Point, where he taught leadership and leadership policy to cadets and command sergeants.