TC0005: Values as the Bedrock of Leadership, Part II

This is the second part of thoughts on values as the bedrock for thinking about leadership.

Leaders are imbued with the willingness to place the needs of the organization before their personal needs.  Ask yourself: Do you go the extra mile or are you just meeting the job description?  Are you working to meet the requirements of the job description or are you an agent for change for the better?  Examine your motives and be honest with yourself.  If your motivation is for personal gain, you are in the wrong business.  When I was selected for senior command I was euphoric.  I was then informed that I would command a training battalion and not a line unit.  For my entire career I had hoped for a line battalion and was greatly disappointed by this turn of events.  But I called to mind a similar situation in which a close friend of mine experienced the same disappointment.  He related to me that he was in his backyard, kicking rocks and feeling sorry for himself,  when his wife came out,  looked at him and with wide eyed innocence, asked, “Don’t those soldiers need leadership, too?”.  He told me that it was like a mule kick to the chest.  Of course they needed and deserved leadership.  Many people talk about selfless service, but they want to line themselves up for promotion and advancement.   Selfless services does not mean that you will not face career disappointments.  It means that you will face them with dignity and continue to give your very best.  As a postscript, that officer went on to command a Brigade and a Division and is now a three star General. He continues to be one of my leadership role models.

Leaders are honorable people who are courageous in the face of adversity whether physical or moral. This courage manifests itself in the willingness to take risk.  We will talk about more about this later.  The quality of integrity goes well beyond the spoken word :  Leaders that adhere to a definable moral and ethical code are leaders of integrity.  They do not consider legal boundaries first.  There is always a debate about “what is right”, but never among people of integrity.   We all have someone to turn to for legal counsel.   To whom do we turn for moral counsel?

Finally, as a value, Personal Courage has a place beyond the battlefield: Leaders are honorable people who are courageous in the face of adversity.  This courage manifests itself in the willingness to take risk.  An accurate (vice investor friendly) profit and loss statement may be considered an act of courage, but not in a values based organization. 

At some time in your life you have encountered someone you would like to emulate.  If this was based upon a personal experience, ask yourself how you felt about yourself when you were with them.  You may have been intimidated by their capabilities, but did you still have a positive feeling about yourself?  This is the same feeling you want to engender in others.  The simplest acts of dignity and respect for others can make that happen.  This is the answer to sexual harassment, racial inequity and ethnic bias.  It is also inviolate.  No breach of respect and dignity can be tolerated in an atmosphere of trust.

These are my core values.  Each organization may choose their own or except those for which they become known.  I am sure the values for which Enron became known were not up on the wall of their board room.  Your values are what make you worthy of trust.  As leaders we are the standard bearers of values.  Not all people come into the Army with these values.  They must be stressed at every opportunity, taught in our development courses and reinforced in organizations.  An organization can only be a values based if all members not only adhere to, but internalize the core values.

Next Post: Vision Casting  

TC0004: Values as the Bedrock of Leadership, Part 1

The U.S. Army is a famously values based organization.  They take in people from Georgia and Ghana, from Boston and Belize and build cohesive teams based upon shared values.  It is very easily done…so to speak.  When a new soldier arrives for Basic Training, he or she is not asked what their values are; they are told what their values will be.  Loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage.  LDRSHIP.  Very handy acronym that fits nicely on a dog tag or on a card for their wallet.  I still carry both.  These values are taught every day in every class from marksmanship to first aid.  More importantly, they are exemplified every day by the Drill Sergeants that provide the first line leadership. It is their job to inculcate values in the new soldiers by being living examples of values.  They are leaders.

Leaders are loyal, able to correctly order their obligations and commitments to the organization, family/friends and self.  Leaders are a magnifying glass when things go well and a heat shield when they don’t.  Loyalty is a two way street and it is not mindless.   It is also not automatic.  We earn loyalty in stages.  First you must gain respect.  In structured organizations some respect for rank and position is automatic.  Personal respect is gained through constancy of action.  Over time, respect grows into trust when faith can be placed in the constancy of action.  If that constancy of action reveals itself as beneficial to the individual and organization, loyalty will grow.  Do not expect loyalty in day one.  It is yours to earn.

Leaders have a sense of duty that causes them to do the right thing for no other reason than it is the right thing. Do you do what is right because of the potential consequences of other action or because you know in your heart what is right to do?  Your people will know the difference.  They will learn from your example. The values of a profession require ethical and moral behavior.  For me, the distinction is this: an education process that teaches you the legal interpretations of right and wrong produces the potential for ethical behavior.  Moral behavior is doing the right thing for no other reason than it is the right thing.  If a decision between alternatives is based upon whether or not the potential to be caught exists, then the choice may be ethical, but not moral.  Leaders must not put their subordinates in an untenable position by presenting them with ethical dilemma.  Think about it.  “I don’t care how it gets done!”   “Make it happen!”  “You don’t want to know.”  These should all sound warning bells in our heads.  Do the right thing for no other reason than it is the right thing and show subordinates what right looks like.  That is among the greatest responsibility of the leader.

Leaders are respectful of all people and fully recognize the absolute dignity that every human being possesses.  They embrace diversity and are compassionate.  Consider your subordinates.  How do they feel about themselves when they are around you.  Important? Trusted? Empowered?  You must answer these questions.  Your people can. This is about self-esteem and there is more to the equation.  People want to feel good about themselves but can only do this if they feel good about the organization. Values must be shared within organizations to achieve this. 

Next Post: Values as the Bedrock of Leadership, Part II

TC0003: Values Based Leadership vs. Salesmanship

GEN Eisenhower speaking to troops
the day before D-Day

If you Google ”Definition of Leadership” (and who hasn’t?) you get 80.8 million returns.  My personal definition comes from one of the nation’s greatest statesmen, soldiers and leaders, former President Dwight David Eisenhower.  His definition is elegant in its simplicity: “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it."  This is a leadership definition with values as its bedrock.

In this definition, the only difference between leadership and salesmanship is values.  The only difference between Adolph Hitler and Mahatma Gandhi was values.  Each was a charismatic visionary, capable of great influence over others.  However, where Hitler was a creature in the depths of depravity, Gandhi’s value set made him a force for moral supremacy.  Values count.

If you are in a leadership position then you have been granted regulatory authority over others.  With that authority you incur the absolute responsibility for those others.  That regulatory authority is what makes a supervisor.  But what makes a leader is the willingness of another to follow you.  Regulatory authority grants power from above.  Leadership is the empowerment of the leader by the led.  The question all leaders search for the answer to is “what is the element that causes empowerment?”.  I believe that trust is the basic bond of leadership and the element of empowerment, as my mentor, GEN Fredrick M. Franks instilled in me.    If you would be a leader, then you must have the trust of the led.  It is the led that must bestow upon you the mantle of leadership that is also a mantle of servitude.

If trust is the basic bond of leadership, how do we become trustworthy? It has been my observation that people hear about 40% of what I say.  They see 100% of what I do.  For my teenage children the hearing ratio appears to be much lower.  You know the saying, if you talk the talk, you must walk the walk.  As I mentioned earlier, values may be taught, but they are more easily caught. Dan Nolan

Next Post: Values as the Bedrock of Leadership