What are the troops complaining about?

Yesterday I listened to a talk by Howard Hendricks about having a long-term impact.

He made the point, “You always know where the troops are at based on what they are complaining about.”  If the troops are complaining about cold beer, old movies and tattered blankets then you know they’re at home base.  If the troops are murmuring about the lack of ammunition, hollering for air cover and screaming for backup then you know they are in the trenches engaged in battle.

Thanks to Howard I learned I have a new tool to assess the current realities in my army by listening more closely to the tones of their whining.