Mike Feiner's course on leadership was one of the highlights of my year spent at Columbia University as a Knight-Bagehot fellow. It was a treat talking to him again recently, in connection with this month's profile on U.S. Navy Rear Adm. James Symonds and his notions on how military leadership principles apply in the civilian world.

Feiner very much agrees with Symonds' people-first approach.

"I've had a number of West Point graduates. I've had a number of Iraq veterans, officers. The one thing they would tell you is that the best officers, the ones that get the most from their troops, show enormous investment in their guys. They have enormous caring for their people," Feiner told me. "Are you removing obstacles? Are you getting them the equipment that they need? Are you giving them the time off that they need?

"It isn't about these great speeches - 'the victory is ours,'" Feiner continued. "It's about creating a climate and the social architecture."

Great military teams perform well because, "they feel that the officer running their command really does give a (bleep) about them."

By the same token, bad leadership can destroy an organization, Feiner argues. "It's a huge issue. It could be the military, it could be Goldman Sachs or Bear Sterns. Bad bosses cause people to flee. People join good organizations but leave bad managers."

He gave an example: "My (teaching assistant) this year is a Harvard graduate, getting an MBA at Columbia, but for three years he did that Teach for America gig where you work at slum schools. He's a lovely kid, very smart, not full of himself. Did it for two years. He was doing God's work, in one of the roughest schools in (Brooklyn), and he really enjoyed it.

"His last year he worked for a principal who was not just a (bleep), but lied and cheated and was unethical." And because of that, the teaching assistant not only left the school - he got out of teaching altogether.

"Those are the people you really want to keep," Feiner said. "Those are the people you can't afford to lose."

And even when top people don't actually leave a company, working under a bad boss can cause a high-potential employee to fail, he said. "The pain and punishment is just so palpable that you just check out."

To prove that good leaders aren't just confined to the Navy, former Army Lt. Col. Audrey Hudgins - now assistant dean of arts and science at Seattle University - shared her thoughts on the intersection of military and business leadership.

The best officer she ever served under, Hudgins said, was Howard Bromberg, who's now a general assigned to the Pentagon. He was then the commander of a Patriot missile battery she served with in Korea.

"He was always concerned about the welfare of his people," Hudgins said. "He took the mission very seriously but he took the soldier's welfare very seriously and he was able to balance the two."

Like Symonds, Bromberg eschewed bombast. "He was more subdued. He was pretty introverted - a Type B personality, whatever you want to call it."

He did much of his leadership one-on-one, Hudgins said. "He'd rarely talk to the entire battalion. He'd rather talk to companies or platoons. That more personalized approach was more effective."

The best military leaders have an entrepreneurial flair for problem solving, Hudgins said. "To be a successful officer you have to be a critical and creative thinker. You have short period of time to come up with solutions that work for the soldiers and still accomplish the mission."

But on the whole, she said, "leadership is leadership is leadership. It's not just about skills, it's about character and values."