tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49305059771460372462024-03-14T01:54:59.205-06:00Character Connections FeedbackA blog containing articles from the "Character Connections" publication of the Center for Character and Leadership Development in the U.S Air Force AcademyCharacter Connections Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03414192939657142486noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930505977146037246.post-91410644419536570172013-03-05T10:28:00.003-07:002013-03-20T09:01:26.977-06:00Noble Purpose and the Profession of Arms: Define it and Realize it!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Michael G. Sabbeth, Esq.</h4>
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In Polymnia, the Seventh Book of the History of Herodotus, Demaratus, a betrayed Spartan, warned Persian King Xerxes against attacking the Spartans. “Valour is an ally whom we have gained by dint of wisdom and strict laws,” he said. Xerxes, scoffing, said the Spartans were weak because they are free men under no direct authority. Demaratus admonished Xerxes, “They are the bravest of all. For though they be free men, they are not in all respects free. Law is the master whom they own; and this master they fear more than thy subjects fear thee… It forbids them to flee in battle…and requires them to conquer or die.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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Xerxes ignored Demaratus and was defeated in the naval Battle of Salamis. The Spartans fought for a noble purpose, not personal glory or wealth. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Heinrich Himmler, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichsf%C3%BChrer-SS" title="w:Reichsführer-SS">Reichsführer-SS</a>, commander of the German <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schutzstaffel" title="w:Schutzstaffel">Schutzstaffel</a>(<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS" title="w:SS">SS</a>), the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_concentration_camps" title="w:Nazi concentration camps">Nazi concentration camps</a> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einsatzgruppen" title="w:Einsatzgruppen">Einsatzgruppen</a> death squads, expressed an elastic view of noble purpose in his speech to SS officers in Posen, Poland on October 6, 1943: “Most of you know what it means when a hundred corpses are lying side by side..…and at the same time— apart from exceptions caused by human weakness — to have remained decent fellows, that is what has made us hard….. a page of glory in our history… We had the moral right, we had the duty to our people, to destroy this people which wanted to destroy us.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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Like beauty, noble purpose is in the eyes of the beholder. Himmler illustrates the infinite capacity of the human mind to behold the vilest evil as noble. The lethality of modern weaponry dictates that the survival of the human species and much else will be a consequence of the proper determination of the nobility of purpose our professionals in arms are commanded to implement. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Leaders determine what is noble, but they, even if democratically elected, offer no guarantee of wisdom and virtue. Ascribing something as noble is an easy rhetorical stunt, but, in George Gershwin’s words, “It ain’t necessarily so.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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Noble purposes do exist. A realist’s perspective on noble purpose should incorporate criteria to measure its nobility, its consequences and the likelihood it will be pursued. The inherent ethics of the purpose, the existence of power to implement it, the moral clarity possessed by leaders assessing it and the existence of moral will to implement the purpose must be assessed. Those who choose a life of service within the profession of arms are duty bound to understand the morality of their assigned purposes and to make moral judgments among conflicting noble purposes. <o:p></o:p></div>
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NOBLE PURPOSE <o:p></o:p></div>
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In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice.” ― <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2782.Viktor_E_Frankl">Viktor E. Frankl</a>, <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/3389674">Man's Search for Meaning</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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In Once an Eagle, a seminal novel on military honor, Anton Myrer expressed a noble purpose: “but what excited him (Sam Damon) most of all were the stories of Cincinnatus and Dumouriez and Prescot, of farmers and citizens who took arms to confound tyranny and crush it, who stepped into the mortal breach to save their native lands…” <o:p></o:p></div>
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Of the six purposes cited in the Preamble of the United States Constitution that justify its creation, one imposes a noble purpose on the nation’s profession of arms: provide for the common defense. The Preamble is derived from the classic Greek tragedian concept that the natural state of man is conflict rather than peace due to its predatory and opportunistic nature. Thus, society has a duty to protect its citizens through deterrence and battle. In Western culture, the mission of the profession of arms is to serve the rule of law and individual freedom. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Augustine of Hippo, generally considered the greatest Christian <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theologian" title="Theologian">theologian</a>, asserted: “Peacefulness in the face of a grave wrong that could only be stopped by violence would be a sin.” The premise of the ‘just war’ was that the evil of war could be justified only if war could prevent greater evils. <o:p></o:p></div>
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MORAL CLARITY <o:p></o:p></div>
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"Evil is never done so thoroughly or so well as when it is done with a good conscience." Blaise Pascal<o:p></o:p></div>
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Moral clarity, the intersection of the rational and the ethical, allows nobility of purpose to be judged on its own ethical integrity. A fighter pilot in Gulf War I was instructed to shoot Iraqis fleeing Kuwait. Deductive reasoning compels that the mission to get Iraqis out of Kuwait had been accomplished and the rationale for shooting them no longer existed. The pilot requested a change of orders. The granting of modified orders negating the instruction to shoot acknowledged a noble purpose premised upon sanctity of life, among other virtues. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Either a purpose is noble or it is not, based on reasonably objective criteria discerned by scalpel-like questioning: does the purpose advance ethical principles such as Autonomy, Justice, Sanctity of Life and individual liberty and personal freedom? Himmler’s didn’t. Neither did Mohamed Atta’s, the Egyptian hijacker who piloted American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower on September 11, 2001. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The absence of moral clarity leads to moral confusion and false moral equivalencies, risking an Orwellian linguistic dishonesty where the narrative of the enemy defines the noble purpose. Moral clarity must distinguish between reasoning and rationalizing; between rational and sophistic rhetoric.<o:p></o:p></div>
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POWER <o:p></o:p></div>
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The nobility of a nation’s purpose is a function of its power to actualize that purpose. As power drains, what is noble becomes malleable. John Keegan, the great military historian, observed that a nation without a military is in a sense no longer a nation. Author Mark Steyn noted that “in a more general sense, nations that abandon their militaries tend also to abandon their national interests: Increasingly, instead of policies, they have attitudes.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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When nations lack the power to address serious issues, they become consumed with trivial ones, where, for example, concerns for windmills trump concerns about Iran’s nuclear weapons. The nation becomes a bystander in its own fate. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Executing a noble purpose requires power. Nations promised fortunes in aid in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami in Sumatra, Indonesia. As food and goods piled up on docks, to be stolen or to rot, the United States military saved lives because it had the power—helicopters and pilots—to reach stranded and wounded people. If you’d wanted to donate to a useful charity to save lives, you’d have given your money to the United States Navy. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In the absence of power, a nation may, at best, mask its impotence by couching its noble purpose in narcissistic moral preening. The most assertive action almost any nation can now take to confront savagery around the world is to get a UN resolution expressing concern. <o:p></o:p></div>
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MORAL WILL <o:p></o:p></div>
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Moral will is the distillate of several qualities, including ethical character, the capacity to analyze facts and, through logic and reason, evaluate foreseeable consequences of actions and inactions. Character, however, is the most salient attribute of moral will. The essence of moral leadership is the ability to inspire loyalty and confidence through force of personal example; the difference between the officer yelling "Follow me!" as opposed to "Charge!" <o:p></o:p></div>
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Moral will in its most honorable incarnation is duty but duty does not define its boundaries. The most motivating force in war is not country or flag but protecting your buddy. ‘Leave no soldier behind’ is the quintessential expression of moral will. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Moral will is the willingness to risk all for a noble purpose. U. S. Army Ranger Sergeant Leroy Petry, the second living soldier since the Vietnam War to receive the Medal of Honor, saved the lives of at least two men in his unit by lunging for a grenade before it could kill them, amputating his hand. "It's not courage," he said. "It was love. I looked at the two men next to me that day and they were no different than my own children or my wife. I did what anyone would have done." Anyone would have done? If only!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Moral will directs behavior. It demands that the exigencies of the present not be cravenly ignored. It demands a credible deterrence against those that desire to undermine you. Rather than having perverse mesmerizing awe for the aggressive self certainty of those inflicting harm, the exercise of moral will effects an unalloyed commitment to defeat them. The nation that lacks moral will acquiesces in barbarism.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Lack of moral will degrades into moral confusion, undermines confidence in noble purposes and can lead to appeasement, the appearance of weakness and possibly the preemptive compromising of those values the arms professionals have sworn to uphold. Moral will enables a nation to have the right enemies and the right friends. You can be liked by all or you can be a great noble power. You can’t be both.<o:p></o:p></div>
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CONFLICTING NOBLE PURPOSES<o:p></o:p></div>
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Noble purposes often conflict. A soldier’s work is inherently conflicted among obligations to the object of the conflict, the welfare of the men and the broader ethical context of the mission. If these conflictual choices are not recognized and their resolutions deliberated, there is nothing for the professional in arms to profess. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Conflicting noble purposes are evident in innumerable choices and decisions such as those pertaining to the release of prisoners from Guantanamo, the use of drone attacks, the concern for collateral damage as a factor to limit or reject lethal action and the rules of engagement. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We nobly aspire to be a nation of laws, not men, yet when decisions are made on the basis of bureaucratic legalisms, risks increase that released prisoners will return to kill Americans. The noble purpose of avoiding or reducing what is euphemistically called collateral damage is undermined when those targets are spared and, thus, allowed to kill more innocents. When the rules of engagement give greater value to the lives of enemy fighters than one’s own, its nobility of purpose begins to dissipate like smoke at a campfire. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The inherent conflicts among noble purposes are ineluctable and elude the consistent application of the same solutions. In harmony with the Greek tragedian sense, leaders must be adaptable and, with grit and nobility of character, struggle to find new solutions. However, consistent principles should guide leaders to find resolutions on a case by case basis. Classist and military historian Victor Davis Hanson advocates pragmatism and prudence but acknowledges that for them to have moral value, pragmatism and prudence must be wrapped in an ethos that defends the nation and its core values of individual liberty and personal freedom. <o:p></o:p></div>
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CONCLUSIONS<o:p></o:p></div>
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But what is strength without a double share Of wisdom?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Milton<o:p></o:p></div>
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A discussion of noble purposes and the profession of arms should raise the kinds of questions informed engaged citizens must ask if they are to gauge and hold accountable the moral integrity of their society and the arms profession that defends it. Noble purposes should be premised on a commitment to truth, for the greatest evil is done by those who believe lies. Noble purposes should advance the principles of individual liberty and freedom. They should be identified unambiguously and vigorously defended without apology or equivocation.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Noble principles are not self-executing and ethics are not self-actualizing. Thus, leaders of moral character must be cultivated, nurtured and rewarded. Paraphrasing Thomas Sowell, ignorance draped in confidence is a dangerous quality and a leader’s ignorance conveyed through brilliant rhetoric will lead to national disaster. <o:p></o:p></div>
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If the leadership chain fails to interpret and advance noble purposes and allows them to morph into philosophies contoured by momentary convenience and expedience, then noble intent becomes polluted like a toxic chemical seeping into an aquifer, subverting the mission of the profession of arms. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The kinds of questions a society and its arms professionals ask—political, military, cultural, financial—illuminate their level of courage and honor. Noble purposes are more likely identified and achieved when leaders are not, in Edmund Burke’s phrase, “intoxicated with admiration at their own wisdom and ability.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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Those who have dedicated their lives to the profession of arms can best realize nobility of purpose through ruthless introspection of their wisdom, character and moral will. Spelunking into the labyrinthine caverns of their souls to confront the tyrants within may be the noblest purpose of all. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Character Connections Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03414192939657142486noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930505977146037246.post-4680985790916770742013-03-05T10:24:00.001-07:002013-05-10T10:25:34.030-06:00Noble Purpose and the Profession of Arms: What should be the Connection?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Col. Daniel Moy, USAF </div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>During his 1962 farewell speech to West Point, General Douglass MacArthur asserted there was an essential noble quality about the profession of arms: “The soldier, above all other men,” MacArthur noted, “is required to practice the greatest act of religious training—sacrifice.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the military professional, selflessness is a distinction that reaches an uncommon extreme—unlimited liability, the willingness to give one’s all in the defense of the Constitution.</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4930505977146037246#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although there is no one more desiring of peace than the servicemember in harm’s way, that sense of commitment undergirds the profession of arms and the countless sacrifices made by military members and their families; over the course of a career, the cumulative toll can be immeasurable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For this reason, the calling of military service is a noble one, and the citizens of the United States continue to view their military as one of the nation’s most respected and cherished institutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“However horrible the incidents of war may be,” MacArthur observed, “the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country, is the noblest development of mankind.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The connection between nobility of purpose and the profession of arms came into sharp focus for me during a deployment to Afghanistan in 2008-2009.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For nine months on the ground, I had the privilege of commanding a Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in a beleaguered province, Paktya, a rugged, mountainous area along the Pakistan border. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our PRT consisted of nearly a hundred Air Force, Army, and civilian personnel representing a range of expertise, from civil engineers and civil affairs officers to governance and development advisers. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our mission was to provide assistance to the institutions of the Afghan government and counter the efforts of insurgent actors seeking to undermine the legitimacy and capability of local leaders in providing security and services to a population of some 500,000, many of whom resided in remote tribal areas controlled by terrorist elements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bar none, over the course of my 23 years of military service, the best lessons I’ve received on the profession of arms came from observing the commitment and sacrifice of the airmen and soldiers under my command in Paktya province.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">What really spoke to me in the example of these exemplary military professionals was the connection between noble purpose and individual character; each one of them stood ready to perform their duties in the face of hardship because of who they were at the core of things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s nothing like the stress of a six-hour mounted combat patrol along a dusty, mountainous road in eastern Afghanistan and the threat of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) or ambush emplacement along the way to challenge one’s resolve and commitment to the mission.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Executing these patrols repeatedly over the course of several months spoke volumes about the character of these airmen and soldiers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For many of the members on my team, especially those who had never sat in a gunner’s turret or operated a Mine Resistant, Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle before, this environment “outside the wire” was unlike any they had previously experienced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Frankly, the same could also be said of me since I had logged all of my previous combat support time in the Air Force from a cockpit 30,000 feet above the battlefield.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Heading into the summer months of 2009, enemy attacks against Afghan and Coalition forces were on the rise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Across the twelve American PRTs, one of our sister units in Panjshir province suffered the sudden loss of four team members, including the unit commander during a vehicle-borne IED attack on one of their convoys. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The tragedy hit all of us hard, and was particularly difficult for me since the PRT commander was a personal friend of mine, someone I had recently worked with in the Pentagon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The two of us had in fact volunteered together and formed a strong bond over the course of our training and deployment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Within a week of the Panjshir attack, my own unit suffered a serious blow when an ambush caught one of our convoys traveling back from Bagram Air Base one evening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ensuing enemy fire took out one of our vehicles and left the driver severely wounded—only the quick action of his fellow teammates saved the soldier’s life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>About two weeks later, I’ll never forget how that same soldier managed to render me a salute from his post-trauma recovery room at Walter Reed, signaling his steadfast commitment to the PRT members still deployed in Afghanistan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That soldier and his dear wife and family will forever bear witness to the cost of noble purpose and the profession of arms.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The most vivid illustration of the connection between individual character and noble purpose came during the last week of our nine-month deployment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of our responsibilities was to prepare the follow-on team to take our place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The new cadre would require the benefit of our experience to know how to mitigate the risk to their own personnel—understand which mountain passes and turns in the road presented the likeliest setup for an ambush or IED attack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One such familiarization mission posed a significant risk to my personnel and the inbound team, an arduous eight-hour convoy patrol into one of the most hostile sectors of our mission area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Along with the responsibility of executing the mission was the awareness that our nine-month deployment was nearly over—freedom from the stress of mounted combat patrols and the welcome embrace of loved ones were right around the corner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet, duty compelled my team to face the ever-present risk of an insurgent attack one more time. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I could not have been more proud of my team.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once the decision was made, they suited up and executed the arduous mission flawlessly, confident in their training and preparation—and most importantly, armed with the confidence derived from a sense of noble purpose—“if the job was easy, they would have sent someone else to do it—but they sent us, the United States military.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll never forget that sentiment which characterized the spirit of my team as they painstakingly executed their mission.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As The Airman’s Creed affirms, the American Airman is a warrior who has answered the nation’s call,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“faithful to a proud heritage, a tradition of honor, and a legacy of valor.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The phrase “I Am” precedes each of its five sections, emphasizing the degree to which the profession of arms has more to do with who we are than what we do—or better said, that virtuous character ultimately forms the essential foundation for noble action.</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4930505977146037246#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It speaks to our guiding principles—integrity, service, excellence—the things that motivate us to take up the mantle of service and sacrifice to defend the nation, even to the extent of laying down life and limb for the airman next to us.</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4930505977146037246#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Aristotle noted that character is “that which reveals choice, shows what sort of thing a man chooses or avoids in circumstances where the choice is not obvious . . .”</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4930505977146037246#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Raising one’s hand and taking the oath of commission or enlistment may happen in a single moment, but loyalty to core values is something we exercise across the countless small choices we make every day as members of the profession of arms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our commitment, “service before self,” elevates the needs of the nation, the Service and our fellow airmen above our own interests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This noble purpose ranks among the most essential and distinctive attributes of the profession of arms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4930505977146037246#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> I am grateful to Dr. Albert C. Pierce, Professor of Ethics and National Security at National Defense University for his insight on the nature of unlimited liability as one of the distinct qualities of the Profession of Arms.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4930505977146037246#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> For further discussion on the association of identity and the creeds of the military services, see Ann E. Rondeau, “Identity in the Profession of Arms,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Joint Forces Quarterly</i> 62 (3<sup>rd</sup> Qtr, 2011), 10-13. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4930505977146037246#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> For further discussion, see <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Armed Forces Officer</i> (NDU Press, 2007), 12.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4930505977146037246#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> See Aristotle, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Poetics</i>, cited in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Armed Forces Officer</i> (NDU Press, 2007), 44. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Character Connections Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03414192939657142486noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930505977146037246.post-59966883818366468502012-07-30T09:05:00.000-06:002012-07-30T09:05:11.946-06:00Honorable Failure: A Practical Guide to Harakiri<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjSnjGr7sxt7NKw8G220fiFhD5fM6H2DA9F4UvaZ3i_YlKhcCrfjmypXdHS_EYGW-KXsyMKz-BXKc0YdYNW5-MKFkWO60Ib3VuWTKGRkFf3KDFMMmBkZj07s2lNNXhek9nm289UqbGTNG-/s1600/kirk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjSnjGr7sxt7NKw8G220fiFhD5fM6H2DA9F4UvaZ3i_YlKhcCrfjmypXdHS_EYGW-KXsyMKz-BXKc0YdYNW5-MKFkWO60Ib3VuWTKGRkFf3KDFMMmBkZj07s2lNNXhek9nm289UqbGTNG-/s200/kirk.jpg" width="185" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Colonel Timothy Kirk<br />
The Senior Afghan Hand<br />
ISAF Joint Interagency Task </td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><v:stroke joinstyle="miter"> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"> </v:f></v:f></v:f></v:formulas></v:stroke><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><strong>Honorable Failure: A Practical Guide to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harakiri<o:p></o:p></i></strong></span></div><br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">Who doesn’t like a good <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Samurai</i> tale of legendary honor?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who can resist the appeal of a culture dripping with the nobility of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bushido</i> – the way of the warrior? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most folks can recite the storyline of the dishonored medieval Japanese warrior by heart: the disgraced, noble fighting man in ceremonial dress would kneel, draw his short tanto blade, and reverently plunge the knife into himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In committing this final ritual act of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Seppuku</i> (or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harakiri</i> to us foreigners who read the letters backwards), a warrior could restore lost honor for a variety of failings by sacrificing his own life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The implication of such a brutal and terminal practice is clear: true honor demands great sacrifice, a warrior must preserve it through the most serious means, and the notion of honorable failure is unthinkable.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Cambria;">Yet while myths of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bushido </i>practices and codes abound, we now know that much of this “history” was not a medieval tradition as much as it was a modern distortion carefully crafted to exploit people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The term <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bushido</i> wasn’t even really used much until the 20<sup>th</sup> Century to support a specific agenda.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the years prior to World War II, Japanese Imperialists created propaganda using <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bushido</i> legends as role models for Japanese citizens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It certainly got men fired up to fight, but it also did a lot of harm to society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, it likely cost Japan dearly during the war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bushido</i> ethos resulted in fighter aircraft designed without safety features or self-sealing fuel cells, naval vessels without fire control equipment and procedures, and a de-emphasis on tactical communications—not to mention an unwillingness to negotiate terms in obvious strategic defeat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How did <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bushido</i> create such harm?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The answer provides an excellent example for those of us interested in the study of how failure impacts our character.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Cambria;">Japanese myth-builders created an extreme notion of character and honor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Warriors were expected to be self-sacrificing, lone-wolf-minded, and fatalistic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Emperor needed them to defeat the enemy, but should the enemy manage to win a battle, he expected warriors to accept their fate with silent, noble “honor” to the ultimate extent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They dealt with failure through an arcane expectation of self-destruction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If a warrior lost a fight, they wasted no time in accepting their ritualistic duty within the context.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was better to die in battle than to return home with the shame of defeat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bushido</i> made failure in performance a moral equivalent of a fatal failure in character.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The impact was final.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Cambria;">The resulting mindset made learning very difficult.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Loss was not seen as an avenue for introspection and study, but a fatal blow in itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The implications meant that routinized attempts at saving defeated warriors’ lives were themselves shameful efforts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Engineering, weaponry, tactics and operational design all bore the moral burden of this mythos—life was not worth preserving if damage came at enemy hands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bushido </i>limited prospects for success by inculcating a spirit in men that obliged them to think about the wrong things, or the right things in the wrong way for success.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Performance suffered, and authentic character died.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">Today, we don’t observe mythological doctrines, yet we still contend with the question of how to deal with failure, and it is helpful to draw a distinction between failure in performance and failure in character.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The lesson of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bushido</i> myth suggests we pay close attention to the nature of failure’s causes; while failure in performance can certainly result from failure in personal character, it is not always the root cause.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the same time, it should remain among the suspects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Misattribution of the causes lead to future failures, so success requires honest intellectual rigor. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When failure occurs, consequences certainly follow and must be accepted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those consequences may be dire, but they should never be so extreme that they are fatal to our learning. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any intellectual, emotional or actual version of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harakiri </i>upon failure distracts us from determining if such a causal relationship truly exists and how it can be fixed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">As it was for the Imperial Japanese military, proof of character can be found in real-world performance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet an idealized form of character that looks good on paper is no substitute for results in the field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Positive results are the product of years of learning, trial and error, and observation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Failure is an important part of that process because it draws our attention to lessons we must learn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we abort the learning process, we disrupt and limit performance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If our intention is to perform well, whatever the context, learning from failure becomes a paramount virtue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dealing with small failures as they occur can also prevent much larger failures down the road.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The practice of ignoring or forgetting performance failure invites catastrophe and erodes personal character.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">Character failures can be just as catastrophic and yet are far more insidious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lapses in integrity, stewardship and other elements of personal character are hard-to-see and hard-to-admit root causes of failure. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While these kinds of failures are hard to confront, even world-class performance cannot overcome uncorrected character flaws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must consider character implications in every failure and do our best to fix any errors we find.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shouldn’t we expect such errors?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The truth is that all men are corruptible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Good character is the exception to humanity’s rule. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>None of us can expect personal perfection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we intend to improve upon that condition, it is important to admit the truth and realize that we commit ourselves to high moral standards in opposition to our own nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is not to suggest we should tolerate such failures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tools do exist that help us to achieve excellent character in our lives; but lofty idealism, unrealistic expectations and mythic notions are not among them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Accountability, transparency and authenticity are far more valuable and effective for this purpose, and with them our character can improve even in the midst of failure.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">As leaders, we must contend with the reality that failure both reveals and impacts our character.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Self-destruction cannot restore lost honor, but the self-awareness failure produces can help us improve our character, developing honorable virtues like humility and perseverance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The best leaders are not those who never fail, but rather those who perform and deliver despite many failures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Samurai</i> folklore may have us believe that the only virtue in failure is in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harakiri,</i> the truth is the opposite. Failure has value not in the termination of thinking, but in the inspiration of thinking, and the latter is the beginning of honorable failure.<o:p></o:p></span></div><v:shape id="_x0000_s1028" style="height: 155.4pt; margin-left: 0.3pt; margin-top: 0px; position: absolute; width: 2in; z-index: 251658240;" type="#_x0000_t75"> <v:imagedata o:title="Mission posture" src="file:///C:\Users\ERIC~1.JOH\AppData\Local\Temp\OICE_BACC2E2D-742A-44BF-A757-CAE7501B89C7.0\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.jpg"> <w:wrap type="square"> </w:wrap></v:imagedata></v:shape><v:shape id="_x0000_s1027" style="height: 155.4pt; margin-left: 393.3pt; margin-top: 153pt; position: absolute; width: 2in; z-index: 251658240;" type="#_x0000_t75"> <v:imagedata o:title="Mission posture" src="file:///C:\Users\ERIC~1.JOH\AppData\Local\Temp\OICE_BACC2E2D-742A-44BF-A757-CAE7501B89C7.0\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.jpg"> <w:wrap type="square"> </w:wrap></v:imagedata></v:shape><v:shape id="_x0000_s1026" style="height: 155.4pt; margin-left: 393.3pt; margin-top: 153pt; position: absolute; width: 2in; z-index: 251658240;" type="#_x0000_t75"> <v:imagedata o:title="Mission posture" src="file:///C:\Users\ERIC~1.JOH\AppData\Local\Temp\OICE_BACC2E2D-742A-44BF-A757-CAE7501B89C7.0\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.jpg"> <w:wrap type="square"> </w:wrap></v:imagedata></v:shape><v:shape id="_x0000_s1026" style="height: 155.4pt; margin-left: 393.3pt; margin-top: 153pt; position: absolute; width: 2in; z-index: 251658240;" type="#_x0000_t75"> <v:imagedata o:title="Mission posture" src="file:///C:\Users\ERIC~1.JOH\AppData\Local\Temp\OICE_BACC2E2D-742A-44BF-A757-CAE7501B89C7.0\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.jpg"> <w:wrap type="square"> </w:wrap></v:imagedata></v:shape></div>Character Connections Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03414192939657142486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930505977146037246.post-62349153153430645902012-07-30T09:04:00.001-06:002012-07-30T09:04:55.610-06:00Developing character through failure: The most important lesson I have learned<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Wm. T. (Bill) Robinson III<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">President, American Bar Association</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><strong>Developing character through failure: The most important lesson I have learned<o:p></o:p></strong></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">As President of the American Bar Association, I am privileged to lead the largest voluntary professional association in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Achieving this leadership position did not come easily. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did I develop strength of character through disappointments, as well as successes, from time to time along the way?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Absolutely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, I would not describe those disappointments as “failures.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each and every time I faced disappointment, I learned a valuable lesson and became stronger to face adversity the next time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">Over the course of my 40-year professional career as a lawyer in private practice, the most important lesson I have learned is that professionalism is never out of style.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Professionalism is embodied in how we conduct ourselves each and every day, even when we are not seen by others. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Professionalism includes the qualities we demonstrate with others, including dignity, equality and respect; as well as the goals we aspire to achieve, in our careers and in our lifetimes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">As a lawyer, I have been privileged to represent a wide variety of clients, including individuals, companies and government agencies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of my greatest joys is to do something that lawyers all across <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">America</st1:country-region></st1:place> do every day: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>stand before a judge in a courtroom and say:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Good morning, your Honor, Bill Robinson representing Jane Smith.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">I never tire of that or take it for granted, because<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for me it symbolizes the essence of professionalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By representing the best interests of others, whether it is in a courtroom, at a deposition or a real estate closing, I always make every effort to put the interests of my clients ahead of my own as a matter of fiduciary responsibility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is professionalism at its core.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">The first time I became aware of the potential value and positive impact of professionalism was when I was 9 years old.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I grew up in a working-class neighborhood in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Cincinnati</st1:place></st1:city>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My dad held two full-time jobs, working as a postal clerk and a janitor, to support our family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the time I was 9, my parents were bringing me along to help clean medical office buildings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They taught me the dignity of hard work and the importance of doing a job well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were the first to show me that, in their words, “doing the job right the first time,” no matter how menial the task, is essential to professionalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">At the age of 14, I left home to enroll in a local seminary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The educational and spiritual experience of the next five years was constructive and beneficial in every way. Eventually, however, in the summer of 1964, I realized reluctantly that the clergy was not my calling. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew I wanted to serve others, but I was not sure how best to achieve that purpose.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;">Three pieces of literature helped guide me toward the law. I read about Alexis de Tocqueville, the political scientist and world traveler, who authored “Democracy in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>” and toured this country in the 19th century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He saw in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region> something he found nowhere else in his world travels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span>He called it “a habit of the heart,” which I believe translates into the enduring spirit of volunteerism in our nation.<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">I had also studied “A Man for all Seasons,” Robert Bolt’s classic play about Sir Thomas More, the Lord Chancellor of England, who refused to compromise his values and was beheaded by Henry VIII. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally, I read “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel written by Harper Lee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">Thomas More and Atticus Finch, the lead character in Lee’s book, were professionals who stayed true to their principles. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They followed the rules but knew there were certain compromises that could not be conceded without sacrificing one’s self respect and integrity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had a conviction of conscience that guided them and fortified their character in the law and in life.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">So with those role models in mind, I grew increasingly interested in a legal career.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I started going to the courthouse and various law offices in my community to watch lawyers at work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was enthralled by what I witnessed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was then I decided to become a lawyer in the service of others.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">My law school experience was satisfying but challenging.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I sold my car to pay for the first semester’s tuition and books.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I worked as a night watchman so I could study all night “on the job” and attend classes full time during the day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Joan and I married and started our family with the birth of our first son.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Soon after graduation, I co-founded a two-person law firm with a close friend and classmate from law school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">My partner and I took in every piece of business that walked in the door as we struggled to build a practice and name recognition in <st1:place w:st="on">Northern Kentucky</st1:place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We learned early on that to be hired and re-hired, we had to get on a potential client’s radar screen; then show the clients that we were competent, dependable and efficient.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our growing reputation as well as our professional handling of cases and client relationships helped sustain us as referrals from other lawyers and members of the community started to flow in.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">During those early years, I was told by a friend that “we never learn anything while we are talking.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That piece of advice has made a difference throughout my career, but especially in the beginning. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The more I listened, the more I learned about how to treat clients, co-workers and members of the community. I remembered birthdays and anniversaries, and I said hello to people on an elevator or in a hallway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wrote notes (and later sent emails, as technology improved) to new business associates or acquaintances as I tried to build a network — a growing community of relationships — for our firm and our growing law practice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">Remember that compassion and kindness can go a long way, as can thoughtfulness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is another, less often mentioned, side of professionalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not enough to be responsible and reliable, it is also important to show consideration — and when needed, compassion — for others along the way.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">Persistence is another part of professionalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no guaranteed success in the courtroom, in the organized bar or even in the civic arena.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Others taught me to take the high road early and often.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ran for president of the student government at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Thomas</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">More</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">College</st1:placetype></st1:place> and lost … but then won the outstanding senior award.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ran for president of the student bar at the University of Kentucky College of Law and lost … but then made the law journal and the moot court board.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ran for president of the Kenton County Bar Association and lost … but continued to volunteer; I received the distinguished service award the next year. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With each defeat and subsequent victory, I learned that I could do well by doing good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I could achieve more by working to make a positive difference in the lives of those I have had the privilege to serve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">For lawyers, volunteer service for others — in addition to our responsibilities to our clients or our employers — is not just what we do, it is who we are. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Volunteer service is part of our professional DNA. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It expanded my network of contacts and enhanced my legal and time-management skills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most importantly, volunteerism, for me, reinforced two essential qualities of every great lawyer who shows the highest levels of professionalism: leadership and empathy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">In these challenging economic times, one might suspect that professionalism might be subject to compromise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that is not the case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again, professionalism is never out of date.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is timeless and essential to how we conduct ourselves in the face of adversity or success.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">Whatever our career choice or path, professionalism should characterize everything that we do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Always strive for the highest standards of performance and professional responsibility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Look for ways to serve others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Build constructive relationships that will enhance our career.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we do, we will experience a rewarding career of personal and professional fulfillment.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; 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</tbody></table></div>Character Connections Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03414192939657142486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930505977146037246.post-63652967020749004442012-07-30T09:04:00.000-06:002012-07-30T09:04:35.145-06:00Failing Well Enhances Character Development<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB_g3T1Si1T-kq_5alby6LvjFBvQTnjDD67x0YGumF3l5LhNMgWEfZt7JU5RCpSArH__lArHfnY4Se1MENYll0VMPv_gFV1t22xnZreoe-qmV3IWG_FlOS0mqLmP8_W6mRc39A4Hef3ZUL/h120/waddle+photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="uploader-thumb-img" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB_g3T1Si1T-kq_5alby6LvjFBvQTnjDD67x0YGumF3l5LhNMgWEfZt7JU5RCpSArH__lArHfnY4Se1MENYll0VMPv_gFV1t22xnZreoe-qmV3IWG_FlOS0mqLmP8_W6mRc39A4Hef3ZUL/h120/waddle+photo.jpg" style="left: 0px; top: 0px;" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Commander Scott Waddle<br />
Former Skipper of the USS Greenville </td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><strong>Failing Well Enhances Character Development</strong></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Life isn’t fair. There will always be someone who is smarter, stronger and better than you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your best effort will sometimes fall short and never be good enough no matter how hard you try.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems the only equalizer in life is death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even in death the path some follow to get there doesn’t seem fair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So why even try if failure is certain? The resilience of the human spirit is what makes us unique and separates us from the rest of the creatures on earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When faced with failure we basically have three choices: withdraw and quit, waffle and do nothing, or try and figure out what went wrong, learn from it and try again until we succeed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Learning to fail well provides an opportunity to push beyond barriers once thought to be impenetrable and a chance to develop ones character.<o:p></o:p></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-hansi-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">I envy toddlers (children ages one to four) and ankle biters (think pre K).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When kids play and begin to socialize with their peers, they have an uncanny ability to embrace setbacks, cast them aside and try again with greater vigor and determination until they achieve success.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are fearless and know no boundaries or limits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fear of failing does not register with them. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-hansi-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">Playing is a vital part of a child</span><span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">’</span><span style="mso-hansi-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">s life and an opportunity for them to socialize experiment and try new things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As children mature and they become more self aware, the consequences of their failures and how they deal with setbacks shapes their behavior and character.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">When I graduated from the Naval Academy in 1981 I was unable follow in the footsteps of my dad, an Air Force pilot, because I didn’t have 20/20 uncorrected vision. I chose the submarine service instead and embarked on what would be an incredible twenty year journey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Getting to command was not easy. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Competition was fierce and opportunity for failure was high. Success was primarily achieved by balancing risk versus the gain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you were too cavalier or risk averse the chances of getting to command became more difficult.<o:p></o:p></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Early in my command of the GREENEVILLE, during one of my weekly meetings with my squadron commander, I learned some of my fellow commanding officers were experiencing high turnover and attrition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The same problem existed on my boat which I attributed to command climate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my boat’s case it was a matter of stopping the verbal abuse and hostility that existed on board.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the Captain when I demonstrated that I cared for the professional development of my crew, their personal and family well being I won their confidence and trust. The hostility ceased and the crew worked as a team.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the end my crew would be the best recruiters, pulling talent from across the globe.<o:p></o:p></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Some of my crew members were disenchanted and simply hated their job.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My challenge was to help them understand the importance of their contribution to the boat’s operations, the team and mission success.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Often it wasn’t easy trying to convince an 18 year old, who was scrubbing out urinals and toilets, doing some other crewmember’s laundry or peeling potatoes how their efforts were contributing to protecting our nation from the bad guys.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I worked hard at it and in the end was successful.<o:p></o:p></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Other captains were giving up on sailors and kicking them out of the Navy at an alarming rate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I shared with them my success stories they responded, “Too much effort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s easier to give them the boot.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Disappointed with the response I asked my squadron commander and his boss Rear Admiral Al Konetzni the Commander Submarine Pacific to transfer the hard case sailors from other boats to my command.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over a two year period 29 careers were salvaged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those that had suffered defeat and chronic failure blossomed and succeeded on the GREENEVILLE.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My crew and I embraced these sailors and found the right fit for them onboard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We knew each person was of value but they needed encouragement and guidance to succeed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once they learned how to fail well, success for them just took a little more effort on their part. While working with these sailors I would learn that for a sailor to respect their leaders they had to first respect themselves.<o:p></o:p></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Leadership success aside; in command, the rules were simple. Don’t run your ship aground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t hit anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t kill anybody (unless it is the enemy) and keep the core covered (think reactor safety). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I violated two of the rules on 9 February 2001 and on 1 October 2001 was invited to leave the Navy.<o:p></o:p></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At age 41 on February 9<sup>th</sup> 2001 while in command of the submarine USS GREENEVILLE (SSN 772), an improved LOS ANGELES Class Fast Attack Submarine operating off the coast of my home port Pearl Harbor, I experienced a life changing event.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That Friday afternoon with civilian visitors on board I ordered an emergency surface maneuver that caused my submarine to collide with a Japanese fisheries training vessel the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ehime Maru</i> killing nine civilians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The accident took the lives of four seventeen year old students, two instructors and three crew members.<o:p></o:p></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">After two years in command I was comfortable and confident in my ability to lead my crew.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had achieved unprecedented success up until the day of our collision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the accident, the two week long Court of Inquiry would document the details that contributed to the cause of the accident.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was found guilty of dereliction of duty and intentionally hazarding my vessel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The actions I took that day I thought at the time were prudent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s usually the case with hindsight being 20/20.<o:p></o:p></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-hansi-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">The accident had a dramatic impact on my life, my crew and the family members who lost loved ones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My personal failure caused significant emotional and physical stress. Despite the strong desire to preserve my personal and professional reputation, by trying to place blame elsewhere, I chose to keep my integrity and character intact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I took responsibility for my actions and the actions of my crew.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-hansi-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">I ended up losing the job I loved the most because of arrogance and the belief that accidents happened to other ships and not to us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My crew was extremely talented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We backed each other up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought we were better than those that had bitten the big bullet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately that arrogance exists today in commands across the military and in board rooms around the globe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The challenge is to recognize the flaw and ferret it out.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Nothing in my training provided me with a formal procedure or instruction as to what to do if I “fell on my sword”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All I had to go by were leadership classes at the Academy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the operational fleet there were incident and mishap reports as well as case studies that documented collisions, groundings, equipment damage, personnel injury and loss of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the fleet most of the resources were part of a continuing training program that required periodic review.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Learning how to balance the risk was a skill acquired through personal failure and observing others fail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I learned early in my career that it was less painful to learn from someone else’s mistakes. One of my old captains used to say, “If the heat’s on you it ain’t on me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remember Waddle to keep the spot light off you and on the other guy.”<o:p></o:p></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Had I not learned to “fail well” early in life the choices I made following the incident most likely would have been different. Thoughts of placing blame elsewhere and trying to dodge the bullet were instinctive but I pushed the thoughts aside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reason I chose to take the moral high ground was simple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was the right thing to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In command accountability and responsibility is absolute. The same holds true in the corporate arena.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is sad that most leaders that experience failure of this magnitude do not fail well. They spend their efforts covering their rear end.<o:p></o:p></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Some of the role models I had growing up were my parents, teachers, coaches, clergy, bosses and scout masters. Each offered encouragement when I failed and sometimes provided a reality check when my goals were too lofty or unrealistic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I matured success was measured in small incremental steps. The failures served to humble me and teach me humility as well as perseverance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over time I would learn what my strengths and weaknesses were.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dealing with weakness is tough but a necessity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I learned to shore up areas that warranted work and supplement my weakness by recruiting those who were strong in areas where I was not and openly acknowledging my weakness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The process built trust and respect with those I worked with.<o:p></o:p></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Eleven years later I still reflect on what could have happened or would have happened if only the accident not occurred.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of us have had our “There by the grace of GOD go I moments.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You might call them something else. In my post Navy career I am a public speaker, executive coach and consultant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The audiences I speak before and customers are leaders who have experienced success in the past but for the first time in their lives are facing failure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The challenge for most of them is they have not learned how to fail well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My job is to help people get back on track and move forward. <o:p></o:p></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">I challenge you to look in the mirror and candidly determine if you fail well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you do not fail well find a mentor and learn how to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you do fail well help others learn the skill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your character development will only suffer if you chose the easy path by waffling, doing nothing or giving up.<o:p></o:p></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Many successful leaders have learned to fail well. A few of them are Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Walt Disney, Bill Gates, Sir James Dyson and Steve Jobs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Take a few minutes and search for Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement speech. You won’t be disappointed. <o:p></o:p></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><strong><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">At some point, you will fail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t give up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fail well!<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div><br />
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</div></div></div>Character Connections Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03414192939657142486noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930505977146037246.post-31632663893675113732012-03-20T09:04:00.000-06:002012-03-20T09:04:10.465-06:00How you Lead those you Perceive as Uncommitted? Start by Looking in the Mirror<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaPC0ne-W8RPC3cbw77RwSS6R2XDf9xN8Bf4I3otOkrQ7AsbaGpeWf28FbhlFEgNCMY8s4C_zEt2sxiUyU_cIhLD-7OU5ilkKqfHPPMDijI8V161yy2EswVY2RF4hWCvlVHXGObqYvh1s_/s1600/curphy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaPC0ne-W8RPC3cbw77RwSS6R2XDf9xN8Bf4I3otOkrQ7AsbaGpeWf28FbhlFEgNCMY8s4C_zEt2sxiUyU_cIhLD-7OU5ilkKqfHPPMDijI8V161yy2EswVY2RF4hWCvlVHXGObqYvh1s_/s200/curphy.jpg" width="160" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr. Gordy Curphy<br />
President, Curphy Consulting Corp.</td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">How do you Lead those you Perceive as Uncommitted?</span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Start by Looking in the Mirror</span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"></span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">Gordy Curphy, PhD</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">Curphy Consulting Corporation<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;"> How one leads those perceived to be uncommitted is a critically important question. Unfortunately the knee-jerk responses to this question from people in charge are often something like: “these people are losers”, “they just don’t get it”, or “some of my employees came directly from the Island of the Misfit Toys.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although there may be some truth to these assessments, they are essentially variations of blaming the victim. Adopting this attitude effectively absolves the people in charge from taking any responsibility for changing uncommitted followers and developing a deeper understanding of why employees become uncommitted (Argyris, 1991). The purpose of this article is to help readers understand three factors relevant to follower commitment and what they can do get followers reengaged.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">The Fundamental Attribution Error<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">The fundamental attribution error (Millerand and Ross, 1975) comes from social psychology and describes people’s biases when assigning causation to success and failure. Essentially people are biased to credit personal factors for their own successes and blame situational factors or luck for their own failures. Precisely the opposite is true when assigning causality to others; people are more likely to ascribe luck or situational factors to others’ successes and personal factors for others’ failures. This means that if people in charge believe uncommitted followers are failures (and they do) then they are much more likely to attribute character flaws, upbringing, or ethnicity rather than situational factors as the underlying reasons for followers’ low commitment levels. This is unfortunate, as situational factors often play a predominant role in employee commitment and engagement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">The Freedom to Flee and the Fundamental Attribution Error<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">There are three critical situational factors affecting follower commitment, and these include the freedom to flee (Hogan, 2007) managerial incompetence (Hughes, Ginnett, and Curphy, 2011), and an organization’s performance management system. Hogan (2007) maintains that leadership only matters when followers have some choice to stay or leave an employer. If followers have no option but to more or less work at gunpoint, then leaders’ efforts to build teams or get followers to exert extra effort will fall far short of expectations. And “working at gunpoint” may be much more prevalent than commonly believed. For example, the United States military has an all-volunteer force, and once people sign up they cannot leave until their tours of duty have been completed. They have no say in when and where they go, how often they go, how long they are gone, what they do, and who they work for or with during their entire tour of duty. At this point some military units have been to Iraq or Afghanistan a half dozen times. Given this lack of choice and the number of tours endured it is hardly surprising that some soldiers lack commitment. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">The working at gunpoint analogy is not unique to the military. Given an unemployment rate hovering around nine percent, underwater mortgages, non-compete contracts, and a health care system that severely limits mobility, many private sector workers have little real choice in jobs and employers. And with no relief in sight with respect to the economy, the housing market, or serious health care reform, those who are employed feel lucky just to have a job. People with limited occupational freedom may not like the situation and will probably do as they are told, but compliance is a lot different than commitment. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Managerial Incompetence and the Fundamental Attribution Error<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">The second major situational factor at play with follower commitment levels is managerial incompetence. Although there are some distinctions between leadership and management, both essentially involve building cohesive, goal-oriented teams and getting results (Hughes, Ginnett, and Curphy, 2011; Hogan, 2011). Effective leaders and managers are those who can consistently do both; incompetent managers are those who cannot build teams and/or get results. Research shows the base rate of managerial incompetence may range between 50-75 percent (Hughes, Ginnett, and Curphy, 2011; Hogan, 2007).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Readers might think that this estimate is far too high, but if they counted the total number of people they had worked for in the past and identified those of this group they would willingly work for again then this estimate may not be far from the truth. And this ratio of willingly work for/total number of bosses seems to be fairly consistent across both the public and private sectors—most people feel that only a minority of military and civilian leaders are actually any good at it. Research and personal experience suggest that most people in positions of authority are not very good at building teams that actually win.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Performance Management Systems and the Fundamental Attribution Error<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">A final situational factor affecting followers’ commitment levels concerns an organization’s performance management system. Most performance management systems consist of two major components: how things get done (i.e., competencies) and what gets accomplished (i.e., results). In many cases flaws in these two components perpetuate the managerial incompetence problem described earlier. To better understand these flaws it is necessary to take a hard look at why people in the public and private sector get promoted. Does an organization’s performance management system promote people because they have demonstrated an ability to build teams that beat the competition or because they never get into trouble and do everything they can to please their bosses?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The group with the best information about a leader’s team building competencies are direct reports, yet they are rarely asked for their inputs. And the results obtained is often of little help in differentiating effective from incompetent managers. This is because the vast majority of metrics found in most organizations are variations of navel-gazing, in that they are nothing more than comparisons against past performance. A team may have generated five percent more revenues or reduced costs by 20 percent from the year before, but the lack of external benchmarks makes it difficult to determine whether these results are any better than those achieved by other teams. It is not hard to see why followers become disenfranchised when the pathway to their boss’ career success is being a dutiful suck up who focuses on obtaining results that do not really matter. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">How to Turn Around Uncommitted Followers<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Managerial incompetence, a lack of occupational choice, and poor performance management systems are in and of themselves enough to drive followers to compliance rather than commitment. But when a revolving door of bad bosses is combined with an inability to flee then committed followers may actually be more the exception than the rule. And there is quite a bit of evidence to show that employee commitment levels are at all time lows. Employee satisfaction and engagement levels as measured by organizational surveys are lower than ever before (Aon Consulting, 2011) and the military has to offer ever greater incentives to get soldiers to re-enlist (Associated Press, 2007; Army Times, 2009). These results speak volumes about the pervasiveness of the uncommitted employee problem. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">No doubt there are some followers who remain uncommitted no matter who is in charge and how much freedom they have to leave. But this group is likely a small minority—most people come to work to succeed. So what can people in charge do to change the situational factors affecting follower commitment? Perhaps the first and most important step is to look into the mirror. Far too many people in positions of authority believe they are leadership legends in their own minds but are seen as charismatically challenged in the eyes of others. Shrinking the gap between self and others’ perceptions and improving those skills needed to build teams and get results are vital for people wanting to create committed followers. Yet getting accurate feedback about one’s strengths and shortcomings is not as easy as it may seem. It is relatively easy to administer 360-degree feedback surveys, but the accuracy of these ratings, particularly when direct reports have limited occupational choice, can be suspect (Curphy, 1991). Direct reports are likely to provide glowing ratings when the sword of Damocles is hanging over their heads, and more often than not bosses pull punches and peers can be too far removed from a ratee’s day-to-day work behaviors to have much confidence in the accuracy of their ratings. The end result is that most leaders may think they are doing a good job, have “data” to back up this belief, yet still be in charge of a sizable number of uncommitted followers.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Those in positions of authority who are truly interested in getting some unadulterated feedback about their leadership effectiveness should go through a comprehensive managerial assessment process (Hughes, Ginnett, and Curphy, 2008).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This process typically consists of a structured interview, mental abilities tests, personality and work values inventories, various work simulations, and 360-degree feedback. These particular components assess many of the leading causes of managerial incompetence and provide participants with a more accurate and comprehensive picture of their ability to build teams and get things done through others. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Because most employees want to win and tend to rebel against a lack of choice, there are several other things leaders can do to improve follower commitment levels. One of these involves setting and being held accountable for team goals that are benchmarked against comparable teams. Given the abundance of information that is available through the Internet it is possible to find benchmarking data for just about every goal imaginable. Working with direct reports to set team goals and benchmarks, create strategies and tactics to achieve these goals, and conduct periodic reviews of goal progress are fundamental but often overlooked steps in teaching teams how to win. These actions also provide direct reports with some degree of choice, and whenever possible leaders need to provide direct reports with latitude to make the decisions needed to get tasks accomplished. As George S. Patton once said, “Never tell people <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">how</i> to do things. Tell them <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what</i> to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.“ <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">In conclusion, it is entirely possible to create teams of loyal and committed direct reports. But to do so people in positions of authority need to avoid blaming the victim and instead give serious thought to how their own behaviors, a lack of choice, and faulty performance management systems contribute to the creation of uncommitted followers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of the actions needed to create engaged employees are directly under leader’s control; whether he or she chooses to do anything about it is another matter.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">References<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Aon Hewitt. (2011). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Trends in Global Employee Engagement</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chicago, IL: Author. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Argyris, C. (1991). “Teaching Smart People How to Learn.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harvard Business Review</i>. Reprint Number 91301.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Army Times, “Army Bonuses”, 2009, </span><a href="http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/09/army_bonuses"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/09/army_bonuses</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">_070910w/.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Associated Press. “Military Pay Soars.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>April 11, 2007, </span><a href="http://military.com/NewsContent"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="color: blue;">http://military.com/NewsContent</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Curphy, G.J. (1991). “Some Closing Remarks about the Use of Self- and Other-Ratings of Personality and Behaviors.” In M.D. Dunnette (Chair), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Multi-rater Assessment Systems: What We’ve Learned</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>99<sup>th</sup> American Psychological Association Convention, San Francisco, CA. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Hogan, R.T. (2007). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Personality and the Fate of Organizations.</i> Mahawh, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Hogan, R.T. (2011).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leadership 101: A Brief Interview with Dr. Robert Hogan</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tulsa, OK: Hogan Assessment Systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Hughes, R.L., Ginnett, R.C., & Curphy, G.J. (2011). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience (7<sup>th</sup> ed.)</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Burr Ridge, IL: McGraw-Hill Irwin. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Hughes, R.L., Ginnett, R.C., & Curphy, G.J. (2008). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience (6<sup>th</sup> ed.)</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Burr Ridge, IL: McGraw-Hill Irwin. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Millerand, D.T. & Ross, M. (1975) “Self-Serving Biases in the Attribution of Causality: Fact or Fiction?” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Psychological Bulletin, 82</i>, pp. 213-225.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="color: #141413; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-no-proof: yes;"><v:shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" id="_x0000_t75" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"> </v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:formulas> <v:path gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect" o:extrusionok="f"> <o:lock aspectratio="t" v:ext="edit"> </o:lock></v:path></v:stroke></v:shapetype><span style="color: #141413; 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visibility: visible; width: 105.75pt;" type="#_x0000_t75"> <v:imagedata o:title="Gordy Curphy-Profile small" src="file:///C:\Users\ERIC~1.JOH\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.jpg"> </v:imagedata></v:shape></span></v:imagedata></v:shape></span></span></span></div>Character Connections Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03414192939657142486noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930505977146037246.post-58317024187303436992012-03-19T16:30:00.000-06:002012-03-19T16:30:19.811-06:00How to lead the “uncommitted”?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinGkgTECg8nkVfiOSHfI0W6gQkDYWwRYhh7Bp2KWAP-cMSjwannieQNjkSImr_LQFeE6_zrIn27HjP7_jWr_CcYrnRz1qX-EWQSRKGJZsPOH8ZTCYEiR3tZdu42FSyZb8RmX_CThl4Z75z/s1600/Theodore+Ryan.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinGkgTECg8nkVfiOSHfI0W6gQkDYWwRYhh7Bp2KWAP-cMSjwannieQNjkSImr_LQFeE6_zrIn27HjP7_jWr_CcYrnRz1qX-EWQSRKGJZsPOH8ZTCYEiR3tZdu42FSyZb8RmX_CThl4Z75z/s200/Theodore+Ryan.png" width="157" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr. Theodore Ryan<br />
Consulting Professor of Ethics <br />
Fuqua School of Business<br />
Duke University<br />
<br />
</td></tr>
</tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwe8_-jPiUKHfTSP0XtXC1VGFNuY8rnLDdv5woz8xB_hOahzOk7lBT9kuLqOnUCzHOZqEe5zPGqdqisyQbpQDMZgNqn7fsfCvCVAaFkd2_wBfFKTTVxX7u4G5DFVYhPFmYXdVZF_oglDMA/s1600/Joe+LeBoeuf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwe8_-jPiUKHfTSP0XtXC1VGFNuY8rnLDdv5woz8xB_hOahzOk7lBT9kuLqOnUCzHOZqEe5zPGqdqisyQbpQDMZgNqn7fsfCvCVAaFkd2_wBfFKTTVxX7u4G5DFVYhPFmYXdVZF_oglDMA/s200/Joe+LeBoeuf.jpg" width="148" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr. Joe LeBoeuf<br />
Professor of the Practice of Managment <br />
Fuqua School of Business<br />
Duke University </td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="clear: both; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>How to Lead the Uncommitted?</strong></span></div><div style="clear: both; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is an interesting and important question, since it certainly seems<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that there are a lot of these uncommitted kinds of folks in the world of work. We may use different names for them, such as<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>uninspired, unmotivated , uncommitted or just disengaged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the number one issues in corporate life is the lack of employee engagement at work. Estimates run as high as 70% for worker lack of engagement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This employee disengagement translates into a trillion dollars a year in lost revenue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, who do we blame?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, it is those damned uncommitted!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, in reality, all this may very well be just a convenient excuse for a lack of effective leader and managerial behavior, and not, at its heart, an issue of a lack of commitment on the part of employees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How can it be a leadership issue?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 6pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Leadership, at its core, is an influence process: leaders influence others’ behavior by providing purpose, motivation and direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One could argue that leaders cannot really motivate others --- that is another’s choice. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What leaders really do is to provide purpose, inspiration, reduce organizational barriers, and create the enabling conditions for others to be motivated; executing their choice. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, leading is about inspiring others to be motivated: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to find identity and meaning in their work, to find their “firm persuasion”, and ultimately to be their best selves every day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 6pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Viktor Frankl, a Nazi death camp survivor and world re-known psychiatrist, wrote a classic book called <u>Man’s Search for Meaning</u> [1959]. <span style="color: black;">This book tells the chilling and inspirational story of this eminent psychiatrist, who was imprisoned at Auschwitz and other concentration camps for three years during the Second World War. Immersed in great suffering and loss, Frankl began to wonder why some of his fellow prisoners were able not only to survive the horrifying conditions, but to grow as human beings in the process. Frankl's general conclusion, from this crucible experience, was that human behavior was driven by a will to meaning; to find meaning and to make a difference, even under the worst of life conditions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 6pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black;">In his subsequent research in the years following his release, he discovered that an overwhelming number of the survivors he surveyed had a strong desire and commitment to make a difference outside their selves -- to matter in the larger human community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From his research and [emerging support from <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>others -- not clear what this means], <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>humans are not inherently disposed to being <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>uncommitted, but are inherently committed and goal-directed, given the right enabling conditions [which are created by leaders] to be their better selves, and do good things. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 6pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">David Whyte [2001] suggests in his book, <u>Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity</u> that the pursuit of good work, which occupies much of our waking lives, as two major impacts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, good work creates the conditions for shaping our identity as human beings. Who we are becomes in large measure a function of what work we choose to do. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The meaning that is created by our work, is the meaning we attach to our sense of self, our identity and becomes an <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>important guide for our behavior. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As John Ruskin put it, “The highest reward for man’s toil is not what he gets from it, but what he becomes by it.” <b><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 15pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 6pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Additionally, through work, we are enabled in finding our firm persuasion or motivation to matter, the will to meaning in Frankl’s terms, and to make a difference in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“To have a firm persuasion in our work – to feel that what we do is right for ourselves and good for the world at the exactly same time – is one of the great triumphs of human existence.” [Whyte, 4]. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Creating the enabling conditions that allow for others to choose good work, and find this firm persuasion to grow and develop, is the responsibility of leaders and managers, and a critical aspect of inspirational leadership.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 6pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, let’s talk about the components of inspirational leadership that create the conditions for commitment to a firm persuasion. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, this places a critical motivational accountability on the leader and manager. Leaders are not leaders when they resort to unfair labeling of employees as uncommitted. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 6pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Leadership in general, inspirational leadership specifically, begins with understanding how we view the nature of human behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In his seminal article, <u>The Human Enterprise</u> [1961], McGregor was the first to examine how our notions of human behavior shape the nature of how leaders and managers behave towards others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He introduced the notion of Theory X and Theory Y as specific categories of perspectives on human behavior at work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Theory X suggests that humans are lazy, lack motivation, are indolent, and not committed to hard work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The leadership and managerial behavior, which emerges out of this point of view, is designed to create policies and structure that are controlling, directing; it becomes a transactional process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 6pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">On the other hand, Theory Y embraces a completely different view: humans are not inherently lazy, unmotivated, or indolent, but rather are goal-directed and desirous of mattering and making a difference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The leadership and managerial behavior that emerges out this point of view, is designed to enable this natural human behavior, and create the conditions that allow folks to reach their potential as human beings; it becomes a transformational process. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, the first question that leaders and managers need to ask themselves is: What is your perspective on the nature of human behavior at work?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This perspective will frame a leader’s behavior towards others in the work place. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 6pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Inspirational leadership is also shaped by how the leader views the execution of work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Leaders who do not have a positive view of human motivation [e.g. Theory X point of view] create the conditions that treat others as simply a means to get work done, regardless of the impact the work has on those who are doing it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These leaders only care about the work, how getting it done benefits them, and not the human beings doing the work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These leaders focus on creating the necessary rules, policies, procedures and transactions to insure that the work gets done, regardless of whether the work being done is interesting, challenging, or meaningful; all critical elements that enable commitment and engagement on the part of others. These kinds of leaders treat their employees, not as humans, but solely as human <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">resources.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 6pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">On the other hand, leaders who embrace a more inspirational perspective, associated with a Theory Y point of view, understand that the work must get done, but the manner in which it gets done is important. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These leaders understand that getting the work done is important, but insuring that the work is challenging and meaningful to those doing it is as important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They recognize the importance of the development of others, and are motivated by a desire to create the conditions for others to not only get the work done well, but to do so in a way that is developmental, and enables others to be their best selves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Additionally, inspirational leaders create the conditions in which others become willing to help others with their work and to also work in the organizational “white space” – to do work that is not specific to anyone’s assigned role, but is necessary for the enterprise to be successful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They leverage the notion that people are committed, want to do well and the right thing, but just need the right conditions to enable the process. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 6pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Given that inspirational leadership can raise the level of employee engagement dramatically, is it still true that there are “uncommitted” people out there?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes. People vary. We exhibit individual differences. According to Frankl, some people at Auschwitz survived because they had a great sense of meaning, while others, with a weaker sense of meaning, did not. Some people exhibit more achievement drive than others. Our point, though, is that the uncommitted, those who do not want to work hard, learn and grow are in the great minority. And experience shows that even with many of these people, inspirational leadership can provide the catalytic spark.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 6pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Inspirational [and competent] leaders have another important motivational role to play in order to maximize the commitment potential of each employee. Inspirational leaders must seek to optimize the match between each employee’s preferences, needs and goals, on the one hand, with the mission and work to be done by the organization. Inspirational leaders get to know each employee very well, and then these leaders work very hard at finding the kinds of work that best suit each employee. The matching cannot be perfect, of course, but employees greatly appreciate that their leader is even trying to make the match.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 6pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, the bottom line here is that the answer the question we first proposed – How to lead the “uncommitted”? – <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>lies with the leader. It is not that people are inherently uncommitted. The problem is that far too often leader and managerial behavior creates the conditions that get in the way of people’s true motivation to be their best selves, and to do good work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Leaders ought not to look outside themselves and label others, but ought first to look at their own leadership and managerial behavior. Leaders must ask themselves, “Am I committed to those whom I lead?”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 6pt;"><br />
</div></div>Character Connections Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03414192939657142486noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930505977146037246.post-12746751319587881702012-03-19T15:46:00.008-06:002012-03-22T16:22:17.476-06:00Are They Really Uncommitted?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyTXrL9z-zq4XPbppuFkumeOfJwyjmF2mKeAj6A6nh8cV8uYymKxbWCBUeX_VopRMo4U7fTV-_FyHZz6AuJq46-nGvdSJtc8nRVSU79JE1ZrRFIgc4HrH_jAy8u4wPYUEI2J_wpgY70xqM/s1600/Dr.+Kelly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyTXrL9z-zq4XPbppuFkumeOfJwyjmF2mKeAj6A6nh8cV8uYymKxbWCBUeX_VopRMo4U7fTV-_FyHZz6AuJq46-nGvdSJtc8nRVSU79JE1ZrRFIgc4HrH_jAy8u4wPYUEI2J_wpgY70xqM/s200/Dr.+Kelly.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;">Robert E. Kelley<br />
<br />
</span></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"> Tepper School of Business <br />
Carnegie Mellon University <br />
<br />
<br />
</span></span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"></span></div><span style="font-size: small;">The initial premise: "How do you lead the perceived to be uncommitted?" is problematic. It begs the question: "To what (or whom) are they uncommitted?" Are the individuals uncommitted as a life stance or are they uncommitted to what you want them to be committed. In my experience, very few folks are truly uncommitted. Yes, some lost souls do populate the planet, but they almost never join organizations, especially organizations that demand participation, such as the military. The act of joining, all by itself, requires motivation and commitment. Some folks might not fully realize what the demands of the commitment are, others might make the commitment lightly, and a few may be very motivated to un-do their decision to join -- but they are not "uncommitted." <br />
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The issue, then, is perhaps better stated: how do you lead people who are committed to something other than what you want them to be committed. Or, they may share your commitment, but at a lower level of intensity. When my followership research started 30 years ago, I distinguished between followers who were committed to the organization and those who did not share that commitment. We were careful, however, to remember that someone who appears uncommitted is probably committed to something else. Consider the difference between a patriotic, duty bound soldier and a mercenary. One is committed to the country and its values; the other is not. But the mercenary is not uncommitted by a long shot. He or she may be committed to money, power, the adrenaline rush of action, or even a cause of some sort. <br />
</span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;">Step 1: Take a Cue from the Tailor <br />
</span></span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Top notch tailors, drawing upon skill and experience, can size up people pretty well. But, even so, they always measure and re-measure the customer each time she or he comes in for a new purchase. Likewise good leaders "measure" their "followers" (or those under your command). The first step, then, is to not make two problematic assumptions: 1) that you "know" or can intuit what drives your people, and 2) that your followers share your commitment. Chances are you have an incomplete picture of both. <br />
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One of your first jobs as a leader is to understand what motivates your subordinates. Why did they join the larger organization? How does their membership help them meet some goal (or multiple goals)? What is that goal: self-esteem, escape from their prior life, parental approval, money, future career progression, or something else entirely? Are they primarily moving away from or, instead, toward </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">something? What are their personal goals outside of the organization? How do their organizational membership and success tie into those larger life goals? <br />
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While gathering goal knowledge, also learn about what they find rewarding. A big mistake that many large organizations make is "one-size-fits-all" reward systems. The reality is that some people are motivated more by money while others prefer promotions. Ribbons make some people feel special, while a hand written note to the family makes another beam. Also, find out what is punishing for those rare times you have to resort to it. Canceling weekend leave has little effect on someone who has nowhere to go. A strong chewing out may cause a meltdown in some, while it is water on a duck’s back to others. People also have a tendency to prefer either internal or external rewards/punishments. Those who derive their own rewards are very different than those who look to others for strokes. Learning the very individualized psychological, social, and economic rewards of each follower gives you the connections you need between someone’s goals and the action required to achieve those goals. <br />
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This more global understanding of motivation and rewards forms the foundation for leading them day-to-day. How does their specific job in your unit tie into their larger motivational scheme? How do the rewards of their job overlap with their personal reward system? What can you do to more closely match what they want and what you have at your disposal to offer? <br />
</span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;">Step 2: Take a Cue from the Coach <br />
</span></span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Every good coach must make decisions as to which players are let on the bus for the game. The first decision involves who to leave home because they either lack the skills to contribute or they lack commitment to the team. For the players on the bus, the coach must distinguish between three levels of commitment: those who get dressed for the game but don’t really want to play, those who play but are OK with losing, and those that give their all to winning. <br />
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A common mistake, as we saw above, is for leaders to assume that their followers have the same goals and commitments. At best, you will have large overlaps. But, except in a very few instances (and usually when life and death are at stake), there is a divergence. What you want out of your temporary shared experience is probably quite different than what they want. You might see a career ahead of you, when, more than likely, they see a job. These differences matter. <br />
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Even when you share the same goals and motivations, the intensity of your commitment will likely vary. While you may want to maximize performance, they might deem it better to do what my late colleague (and Nobel Laureate) Herb Simon labeled "satisficing," that is, to do it just good enough. So, your challenge is to know their commitment level. This is the base from which you build. <br />
</span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;">Step 3: Take a Cue from the Star Followers <br />
</span></span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">My study of star followers has yielded many important lessons for leaders. Foremost is that too many leaders think that people are following them because they are, well, such great leaders. They have the "right stuff," and people just naturally follow it. Or they believe that their organizational role gives them the "right" to expect that people will follow. In contrast, I discovered that the best followers seldom follow people because of who they are or because they occupy an organizational role of leadership. </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Sure, they will carry out decisions, but they do not really follow. Instead, the stars follow goals, causes, ideals, and much less than anyone expected, people who have earned their respect. <br />
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To be a good leader, you have to get over yourself. You are not center stage. An important part of your job is to help your people be center stage. As I’ve said many times: "The best leaders are not heroes; they are hero-makers." If a leader needs to be the hero, then step down and let someone else take the job. <br />
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It is at this point that leaders can emulate star followers who look to connect with someone who is going to the same place that they are. An important part of the leader’s job is to create a shared context. You now know what drives your followers. Create the bridges from where they are to where you need them to go. Help them see that they can fulfill their dreams by being part of your (or the organization’s) plan. <br />
</span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;">Step 4: Take a Cue from the Sergeant’s Sales Pitch <br />
</span></span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Once you’ve identified the bridges between your commitment level to the organization’s goals and the goals/commitments of your subordinates, then you need to communicate them in a compelling way. You can’t expect the links to be obvious. Keep in mind that your "audience" knows you have your own agenda. So you have to put it in a way that is easily understood by them to be in their own self-interest. <br />
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During World War II, the U.S. government decided to offer a life insurance policy to the common soldiers. They thought that it would provide an economic cushion to those families left behind by fallen soldiers. The lieutenants were given the job of explaining the policy to their troops. In one particular unit, the lieutenant passed out the papers and went through a very thorough step-by-step explanation of the $10,000 benefit for $6/month ($139,000 and $85/month in 2011 dollars). After his well-reasoned presentation, he got no takers. An old sergeant asked for permission to explain the program. The lieutenant was a bit miffed, but agreed, feeling that the Sarge couldn’t do a better job. Sarge asked a simple question: Who do you think the government is going to send to the front lines first: the ones who would cost $10,000 if they are killed or the ones who would cost nothing." Everyone bought the insurance. <br />
</span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;">Step 5: Take a Cue from your Committed Followers <br />
</span></span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Finally, don’t over focus on the uncommitted. Instead, give first attention to the people who are already with the program. They are the foundation for your success, so secure their participation. Use the advice above to get to know what drives them and why they are committed. Which would you rather have: 1) a 95% highly committed team that feels acknowledged and valued by the leader with 5% peripheral, uncommitted players, or 2) a team where the 5% who were uncommitted are now on board, but the rest of the team feels like the squeaky wheels got the oil? <br />
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Also, use your committed followers as a resource. Your star followers are your ears and eyes into your unit. They have access to the conversations that you, because of your position of authority, will never have. So, ask them what is going on in the unit and what is with the uncommitted members who are sitting on the fence or dragging their heels. You are not asking them to snitch, but rather, how to build a stronger unit. </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Finally, never forget the power of the group to influence an individual’s behavior. Rather than see yourself as the solution, consider how the group can pull people to perform in desired ways. Peer pressure is a powerful force and must be used with care. But, it does work. <br />
</span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;">Conclusion <br />
</span></span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Calibri; font-size: small;"></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Think of iron shavings scattered randomly on a board. The five steps above (and other complementary strategies) are like a magnet that you pass over them. With each pass, more of the shavings form a line, becoming their own magnet. Eventually, even the farthest most shaving will snap into place. </span></div>Character Connections Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03414192939657142486noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930505977146037246.post-1034793321566045772012-03-13T14:41:00.000-06:002012-03-13T14:41:21.285-06:00Leadership: Empowering Others to Achieve More<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mr. Michael Foran<br />
Principal of New Britian High <br />
2012 NASS<br />
Principal of the Year</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><u><strong>Leadership: Empowering Others to Achieve More </strong></u></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The challenge for leaders in urban education today, like leaders in many other fields, is to convince people that they capable of far more than they believe they can accomplish. The federal government tells us in the “No Child Left Behind” legislation that 100% of the students in our schools must be proficient in reading and numeracy by 2014. These include students with learning disabilities, students with other disabilities, students facing the challenges of generational poverty and students that have come from a non-English speaking country as little as 10 months ago and that are learning English for the first time as well as all other students. While common sense tells us that this goal is at best unrealistic, reflection brings us to the conclusion that this is the only acceptable goal for an educator to have. If we do not aspire to reach 100% of our students then we are setting our sites to low. As a leader this is easy to say but how do we get those in the trenches, our teachers and ultimate our students, to continuously strive to get closer to this goal when it seems so unrealistic? How do we create a culture of continuous improvement where we are always seeking to get better at what we do? I certainly do not profess to have the answers to these questions but I do understand that the pursuit of these answers is at the very core of being a leader in the position that I am in. I recognize that my job is to lead sometimes skeptical yet almost always committed people who are used to succeeding in a process towards a goal that logic tells us is impossible to reach. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Leading professionals in this process starts with the realization and acknowledgement that I am not the expert on how to get all of our students to achieve at high level, they are. In order to move our institution forward a leader must recognize and build on the talents of those being lead. He must provide the structures that enable all those being lead to use and share their expertise. A good leader develops leadership at all levels of an institution. In the case of a school, we must develop leadership in all members of the administration, teacher leaders, leadership among all other support personnel as well as students leaders. To maximize effectiveness leadership should be assumed by different individuals at different times based on the situation and their strengths. While it is essential that we create structures that allow all members of the school community to share their varied strengths, the leader must ensure these strengths are being used to move the institution towards a single focus. In the case of our high school that focus is that all of our students will graduate college/career ready. It is the responsibility of the leader to ensure that this focus is effectively defined and to demonstrate a commitment to this focus to all stake holders in his words and more importantly in his actions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The most effective way to build a culture of continuous improvement and shared leadership is to create structured collaboration with built in mechanisms for accountability. In schools, teachers must be given time to work in teams. The most effective teams are teams of teachers who teach the same subject. Their meetings must be structured with clearly defined norms and outcomes. One outcome of virtually all of these meetings must be a strategy that can be implemented in the classroom the next day. The results of this strategy are then brought back to the team and analyzed by looking at the student work that is generated by the strategy. This analysis leads to a determination of next steps. This becomes a cycle of continuous growth through collaborative analysis of student work. Because all team members are responsible for bringing student work to the meetings there is built in accountability for all team members to each other. The role of the leader evolves as the team grows more effective. Initially these teams require strong leadership but as the members of the team become more comfortable with the process leadership should be transitioned to the team members. Traditionally in schools teachers and other professionals work largely in isolation so this type of teaming can be uncomfortable at first. It is the responsibility of the leader to establish the singular focus of the team and be sure that all members understand that the goal is continuous improvement of student outcomes and it is not means to critique or evaluate teachers. It is designed to build the capacity of the adults through sharing of their expertise in order to improve student achievement. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">In a school as important as developing the leadership ability of the adults is developing opportunities for students to lead and support each other. Traditionally students have had leadership roles on sports teams and in clubs and other activities. In order to continuously improve student achievement we must expand that role for students into the classroom. We now recognize that effective instruction involves providing opportunities for students to teach other students. When students are involved in interaction with each other about their learning all students are actively engaged. When students support each other in their learning both the student being supported and the student providing the support are learning at a high level. When students are actively engaged in this way, teachers have the opportunity to listen and monitor for understanding. Teachers who develop student leaders in their classroom and empower those students to support others are far more effective just as school leaders who empower their teachers to lead their peers are more effective. Schools where this type of shared leadership exist are going to be far more successful in creating a culture of continuous improvement and ultimately move more quickly towards their goal of all students achieving at a high level. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Successful leadership in urban education as well as in other areas where the leader must lead skeptical people is challenging. Dictatorial leadership that assumes compliance based on the roles of the individuals in a hierarchy will not bring about the desired outcomes. The leader must clearly provide those he leads with a clear vision based on shared values and a commitment to a shared singular focus on an outcome. The leader must know when to push individuals beyond their comfort zone and when to slow things down. He must know when to celebrate successes and when to look critically at outcomes that do not meet expectations. More importantly, the leader must recognize the strengths and potential strengths of all the members of the institution and find ways to use those strengths. Ultimate leadership is about relationships. The leader must earn the trust of those he leads by being sure that he demonstrates in his actions the same values that he holds others to by his words. While challenging, shared leadership among all stake holders working towards a common goal can be extremely powerful and lead to success well beyond what individuals may think is possible. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="border: currentColor; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></div>Character Connections Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03414192939657142486noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930505977146037246.post-10512093732944812682011-08-24T12:30:00.008-06:002011-09-29T14:39:42.695-06:00Do Your Duty in All Things<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVrtr5jcmdzd10YekNhr8pRxxh74jXUShgIhbmZ1ABF4yvf134JijZy_sL4aNJA526c7XBQHWJ0cjTs__oBtTHlB7iDI_s9KW4pyqlUoqV7AVGln2Nf-JOyCt9NhppfJ3KFZgYZj-SvZaf/s1600/LOires_dempsey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVrtr5jcmdzd10YekNhr8pRxxh74jXUShgIhbmZ1ABF4yvf134JijZy_sL4aNJA526c7XBQHWJ0cjTs__oBtTHlB7iDI_s9KW4pyqlUoqV7AVGln2Nf-JOyCt9NhppfJ3KFZgYZj-SvZaf/s320/LOires_dempsey.jpg" width="256" /></a></div><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Duty is the most sublime word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less.” </span></i><br />
<div class="WordSection1"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: right;"><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Robert E. Lee</span></em></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nearly twenty-five years ago as a young major attending the Army Command and General Staff College, I wrote a paper titled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Duty: Understanding the Most Sublime Military Virtue.</i>”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was at that time a fairly extensive debate about how many “virtues” defined our profession and which among them was most important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suggested then—and continue to believe now—that Duty was among our most important virtues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In posing the question of whether <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Duty is Dead”</i> we renew a frequent and healthy debate about what we mean by Duty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Certainly the proposition that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Duty is Dead” </i>suggests that some question the continued relevance of Lee’s “most sublime” virtue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From time to time throughout my career I’ve found it helpful to reexamine the documents that unite us and bind us in determining what words retain significance in defining our profession.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our Army defines Duty as “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fulfilling one’s obligations…the legal and moral obligation to do what should be done without being told</i>.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have several obligations as members of the American military profession, the most important of which are found in the officer’s Oath of Office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In taking the Oath, we swear <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">to “support and defend the Constitution of the <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">United States</place></country-region>.”</i> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In swearing an Oath to the Constitution, military professionals agree to place the defense of the <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">United States</place></country-region> above their personal welfare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moreover, in swearing to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“support the Constitution,” </i>we also commit to the spirit of the Constitution—an exhortation to contribute to “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">a more perfect union</i>.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus, military professionals commit to more than simply getting the job done; we obligate ourselves to personal excellence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Title X of the U.S. Code adds to the obligations outlined in the Constitution, charging the Army and its members with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“supporting the national policies.”</i> </span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Members of our Armed Forces must <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘do their duty in all things.’</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We defend our Nation, support the constitutionally-elected government, remain dedicated to professional excellence, and place these obligations ahead of our own welfare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are tensions among these profound obligations of Duty, and coupled with the strains of ten years of conflict some may ask <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Is Duty Dead?</i>”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is helpful to consider the continuity of our profession in navigating through and beyond current challenges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">American military professionals have wrestled with the tension among Duty’s competing obligations for more than 230 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In times of peace, when defending our Nation can seem a remote possibility, military professionals have dedicated themselves to pursuing professional excellence and preparing themselves for future conflicts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When conflict arises, military professionals shift their focus to defending our Nation and supporting the duly-constituted government. </span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An unbroken record of sacrifice and courage testifies that the members of our profession have collectively ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">done their duty in all things.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>On August 5, 1864 Seaman James Avery, a 39 year old Scotsman, left the safety of his ship, the U.S.S. Metacomet, braved intense enemy fire, and aided in the rescue of ten crewmen from the U.S. monitor Tecumseh at the Battle of Mobile Bay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More than 140 years later, Sergeant First Class William Tomlin, an Army Infantryman from <city w:st="on">Angier</city>, <state w:st="on">North Carolina</state>, led counterattacks, coordinated indirect fire, and rallied reinforcements near the town of <city w:st="on">Chakak</city>, <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Afghanistan</place></country-region> to turn an otherwise dire situation into a victory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seaman Avery and Sergeant First Class Tomlin’s unflinching performance of their duty—defending our Nation and supporting its policies—are only two of the countless examples that assure us of the primacy of Duty from our past through to the present.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like them, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">we cannot do more than our Duty, and we must never wish to do less.</i></b></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I offer a final thought about the need to reflect periodically on our understanding of the virtue of Duty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In taking the Oath of Office, we assert that we “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">take this obligation freely.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>Service in our Armed Forces is wholly voluntary, as is the commitment to “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">to do what should be done.” </i>Our understanding of Duty and the reality of the sacrifices made in the fulfillment of that virtue are what animate our service and give it real meaning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These experiences transform what would otherwise be servitude into a free exchange.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This free exchange is why <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Duty is not only alive and well but remains the sublimest word in our professional language.</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<i><span style="color: #221e1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Adobe Caslon Pro";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">by </span><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/characterconnections/home/about-general-martin-e-dempsey"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">General Martin E. Dempsey</span></a></span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #221e1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Adobe Caslon Pro";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">37<sup>th</sup> Chief of Staff of the <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">United States</place></country-region> Army.</span> </span></i><br />
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</div>Character Connections Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03414192939657142486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930505977146037246.post-79776827117644192032011-08-24T12:00:00.003-06:002011-09-01T10:16:41.824-06:00Duty: The Principle that Defines Our Profession<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJXBK3s4lB-c7tolhr3kEgxMtmoE3JTZhaIIbtUd4bz7ofrZ9v3M48rQ25D5TN72S0VIVUWk87OMM1mflQ0egcGLFfv-dxLHY4AZVx39NzrccElRIFGJ79IUwG60mlWsgKZwvwnycTdSTk/s1600/LOres_ayyar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJXBK3s4lB-c7tolhr3kEgxMtmoE3JTZhaIIbtUd4bz7ofrZ9v3M48rQ25D5TN72S0VIVUWk87OMM1mflQ0egcGLFfv-dxLHY4AZVx39NzrccElRIFGJ79IUwG60mlWsgKZwvwnycTdSTk/s200/LOres_ayyar.jpg" width="158" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><strong>Duty.</strong> This single concept is the foundation of the profession of arms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s the fundamental precept that Airmen will do what they have been entrusted to do in times of peace and peril.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trust is formed instantly between Airmen because of this commitment. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">Aircraft are flown, missiles are readied, and satellites are launched -- all on the fundamental notion that each of us has done our duty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It encapsulates our core values of service before self, excellence and of course, integrity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">Duty is not at all affected by sarcasm, the petty scandal of weakness and the passing tinsel and trash of material things. As a concept, it is transcendent by simple adherence to the values it embodies; that we are committed to something bigger and more noble than our own self aggrandizement; that other Airmen are depending on our action; and that the consequences of lack of will are great and will be borne by many.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">The universal values of love, trust, right conduct, and truth are embodied in this organizing principle and so ennoble it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Duty brings about a faith in other people that is akin, in its finest hour, to the faith many share in God. The character transformation that comes about by living according to this precept is what gives us our heroes -- Airmen who know they must act in order to save others. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">What makes some cower in the face of danger and others rise?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you constantly act for others, for the greater good, your mind and intellect are disciplined and become your servant rather than your master — training for the time when you will be tested. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">There is no equivalent organizing principle in any other profession. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">And yet, I agree, the notion of duty seems distant in today’s world, like something left behind from a glorious history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In that era, as General Robert E. Lee is attributed to saying -- you could do no more and no less.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Duty was a sacred calling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">To a younger generation these hallowed thoughts may seem out of touch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sarcasm and cynicism have crept into the calculations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The values that made the notion of Duty so sacred have been quietly dissected and detached.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">For some, Duty has been reduced to simply fulfilling one’s responsibilities as opposed to performing at your highest level for the greater good; or by living each day knowing you could have done no more to help others in your mission.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">Thankfully the system has a way of recognizing Airmen like this. Over time they are diminished.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Based on those Airmen I suppose, as proposed here, there is talk of duty being somehow passé or more directly, dead to a new generation of Airmen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From my perspective, nothing could be further from the truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">For thousands of years, despite not being able to describe gravity or understand it we have walked on this earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fact that a new generation of brilliant young Airmen has a different lexicon doesn’t<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>diminish the expectations of our culture to live up to this notion of Duty. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">Duty is the gravity in the profession of arms. Whether or not you understand it is of little consequence. You must conform to it. It penetrates every aspect of our expectations and training. It is who we are and what we believe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">More than the other services, who have the luxury of numbers to cover their risk, the United States Air Force deploys and is prepared to fight one Airman at a time. The notion of duty must be so ingrained that it is instinctive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">I have never been more confident of this. Airmen are deploying from every Air Force specialty code, early in their careers, empowered by our best traditions and highest expectations. Many of them are volunteers to return to the war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They felt connected to the profession of arms there, in conflict, in a way that only they who have experienced it can know. There’s certain peace that warriors know; and it comes from this, the certain knowledge that they could have done no more to help their fellow Airman. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">Global Power, Reach and Vigilance all depend on individual Airmen doing their Duty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the reason we are the world’s finest Air Force.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">One last thought on this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Character development is the single most important aspect of your development as a leader.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Leadership and duty hinge on an individual’s character. The values have to align. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">Thoughts, words and deeds must match.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your credibility, authenticity and ultimately your power to transform will turn on your character.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The tiny temptations of power will unveil any flaw, no matter how minor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The demands of your Duty will reveal any weakness in your character.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Either the circumstances in life will define you or you will define the circumstances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The difference in those outcomes is found in your character.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">The net effect of your life comes to you in moments of crisis. People of character and purpose have clarity and the will to act.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All the other endeavors you may be engaged in at the Academy are for this purpose alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The end of education must be character. It alone will allow you to see and understand the duty you have to your fellow Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors and Marines and earn the trust to lead them. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">Thank you for letting me share a few thoughts with you on this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is an exciting time to be serving your Air Force and Nation. There’s never been a greater need for young officers of character and distinction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I look forward to the next generation of great American Airmen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><em>by <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/characterconnections/home/brigadier-general-balan-r-ayyar">Brig. Gen. Balan Ayyar</a></em></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><em>Air Force Recruiting Service Commander</em></span><br />
<br />
</div></div>Character Connections Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03414192939657142486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930505977146037246.post-41398155645141616482011-08-24T11:30:00.020-06:002011-09-20T09:11:46.583-06:00Dead Man Walking: Duty on Death Row<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-IQz4WPjmD5Lvzs13KP83dIaOs-lTA2qIKE3vmMA1YryAlCAbvHIdTlw539viIqvNTgpSzdFPHJz_sBwgYerIZLeTJ-6sDDklfz1tTXQ0qfjuLEMa4Q1IwDLDNdAbrA5WOeJGWHWZahH6/s1600/Donley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" nba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-IQz4WPjmD5Lvzs13KP83dIaOs-lTA2qIKE3vmMA1YryAlCAbvHIdTlw539viIqvNTgpSzdFPHJz_sBwgYerIZLeTJ-6sDDklfz1tTXQ0qfjuLEMa4Q1IwDLDNdAbrA5WOeJGWHWZahH6/s200/Donley.jpg" width="160" /></a></div> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> An aging demigod sits schackled in solitary confinement awaiting final execution, sentenced to die for influencing millions to commit atrocities in his name and for leading millions of others to sacrifice themselves foolishly for misguided notions of honor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The longer this cultic personality is kept from the public eye, the more alien he appears and the more palatable his absence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now that the years have passed into decades, it is time to assess the long-term negative effects of his incarceration:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the “liberation” of society to self-entitlement, self-absorption, and, ultimately, disappointment and cynicism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps the verdict was too severe. Perhaps, a full and immediate pardon is in order.</span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The identity of the convict above is not a person but a concept: Duty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While Duty is not completely dead in the <place w:st="on"><country-region w:st="on">United States</country-region></place>, its days appear to be numbered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Duty, as a motivator for action, has grown out of favor in American society for a number of disparate reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Among them are Americans’ overreactions to the duty-incited excesses of the past, the widespread fear of being branded “intolerant” for believing that some things are inherently right regardless of context or circumstance, and the innate tendency to repel any threat that challenges one’s own sense of self-prioritization or belief that personal happiness trumps all other things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To many people, Duty conveys a mindless obedience to orders or is seen as a tool to manipulate people through guilt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These conceptions often spring from the abuse of tyrants or the gullibility of ignorant masses whose irresponsible actions bear false witness against Duty’s true character.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Even in the institutions that still celebrate a version of the concept, Duty appears as a mere shadow of its former self.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Notable incidents occur on rare occasions in which people perform acts of self-sacrifice motivated by their sense of Duty, but these acts are celebrated or mocked precisely because of their exceptional nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This essay argues that the re-emphasis of Duty in the <place w:st="on"><country-region w:st="on">United States</country-region></place> is critical as a moderating balance to the self-entitled mindset of individual Americans and the health of American society as a whole.</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To avoid confusion, Duty is defined in this essay as an individual and internally-held moral obligation to principles superseding personal gain, pleasure or advancement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Commenting on this aspect of Duty, Vice Admiral James Stockdale, a former prisoner of war in <place w:st="on"><country-region w:st="on">Vietnam</country-region></place> said, </span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<blockquote><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>The obligation to do our duty is unconditional.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, we must do it for the sake of duty, because it is the right thing to do, not because it will profit us psychologically, or socially, or economically, not because if we don’t do it and get caught we’ll be punished.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>…. So you can’t ask what benefits will accrue from performing your duty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You must do your duty because it is your duty.</em></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=4930505977146037246&postID=4139815564514161648#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><em>[1]</em></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-spacerun: yes;"><em> </em></span></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In this capacity, Duty is primarily a selfless motivation to action, even though at times, one’s Duty may correspond to one’s personal desires or lead to personal rewards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some people might argue that a person has a legitimate Duty to self and personal happiness, but such a use emasculates the term and replaces the stone foundation of “right” with the shifting sand of personal whim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A person is somewhat defined by her conception of her Duty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Individuals choose what, if anything, takes priority over their own personal comfort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, once Duty is decided upon, it demands obligation, even to the point of personal sacrifice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While there is always a choice whether or not a person does her Duty, she cannot neglect her Duty without doing harm to her self-identity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this way, Duty is closely linked to a person’s sense of honor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In recent decades, Americans have largely ceased inculcating Duty in young men and women as a motivator for action and begun preaching personal fulfillment as their chief catalyst.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consequently, the <place w:st="on"><country-region w:st="on">United States</country-region></place> has gradually evolved into a society in which its citizens are driven primarily by a sense of entitlement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The vast majority of Americans approach life from the position of “I deserve” rather than “I owe.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dr. Jean Twenge, psychology professor and author of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Generation Me</i>, reports that this evolution finds its consummation in a generation of Americans who have been brought up to believe that they deserve happiness and fulfillment above all else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In her assessment, Generation Me “has never known a world that put duty before self.”</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=4930505977146037246&postID=4139815564514161648#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><sup><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[2]</span></sup></span></sup></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">According to Twenge,</span></span></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><blockquote><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today’s young people…speak the language of the self as their native tongue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The individual has always come first, and feeling good about yourself has always been a primary virtue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Generation Me’s expectations are highly optimistic:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>they expect to go to college, to make lots of money, and perhaps even to be famous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet this generation enters a world in which college admissions are increasingly competitive, good jobs are hard to find and harder to keep, and basic necessities like housing and health care have skyrocketed in price.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a time of soaring expectations and crushing realities.</span></em><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=4930505977146037246&postID=4139815564514161648#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><sup><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><em>[3]</em></span></sup></span></sup></a></blockquote></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Twenge warns that “our high expectations, combined with an increasingly competitive world, have led to a darker flip side, where we blame other people for our problems and sink into anxiety and depression.”</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=4930505977146037246&postID=4139815564514161648#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><sup><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[4]</span></sup></span></sup></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This essay is not a polemic against today’s young people—far from it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Young people become what they are conditioned to be by the societies in which they live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather, this essay calls attention to the resultant hollowness flowing from the “Duty-less” decades of recent American history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Blame, anxiety, and depression are just a few by-products of a society prioritizing self-entitlement over selfless duty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When children are raised to feel that they are the center of the universe and that nothing should override their responsibility to themselves and their own personal happiness, they are eventually confronted by the cold reality that life does not cooperate with their expectations and that their ever-increasing appetites lead only to persistent hunger and constant dissatisfaction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moreover, even when life appears to be cooperating, they must often face the realization that a universe revolving around them is a pathetically small place to live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Confronted by these realities, self-entitled individuals grow bitter, cynical and disenchanted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Americans would do well to overturn Duty’s death sentence and release the rehabilitated penitent back into mainstream society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Parents, teachers, and authority figures must consciously reassess their aims of developing “self-esteemed” people motivated primarily by personal gain and, instead, seek to shape young men and women who embrace a sense of duty and find meaning in their service to society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More must be done to communicate to young people that there are some causes, concepts, and ideas that are bigger and more important than themselves and their personal happiness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They must be shown that fulfillment is found when they contribute to a cause rather than merely benefit from it, and that their significance lies in being critical cogs in a life-giving machine rather than being the machine itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Simply put, self-entitled members of Generation Me must now be taught that life is NOT primarily about them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This shift from self-entitlement to selflessness, from choices predicated on personal preference to actions motivated by duty, will not be easy since many in today’s positions of authority and influence share the backgrounds and perspectives of those in the target generation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consequently, developmental institutions should seek out mentors whose personal and professional histories demonstrate a commitment to duty and an ability to inspire it in others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first and most critical task is to educate the educators.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is no better initial target audience than the <country-region w:st="on">US</country-region> military due to its unique mission and national representation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The active-duty and veteran military communities represent a promising place to begin the search for mentors since Duty’s legacy, however vaguely remembered or poorly practiced, are kept alive in the hushed whispers of military elders and the exploits of its heroes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Additionally, cadets in officer training pipelines represent an ideal population with which to initiate the tutorial.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Far from being exempt from the consequences of Duty’s decline, cadets are products of their society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Officer training schools, despite their histories and reputations, are not the repositories of successful Duty indoctrination, and a lieutenant’s commission does not, in itself, transform an intelligent young person into a Duty-focused officer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Charged with the future task of leading men and women in the defense of the country, future military officers are the perfect disciples for Duty’s return to prominence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">by <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/characterconnections/home/lieutenant-colonel-patrick-h-donley">Lt Col Patrick Donley</a></i></span></div><br />
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;"><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=4930505977146037246&postID=4139815564514161648#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> James B. Stockdale, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A <place w:st="on"><country-region w:st="on">Vietnam</country-region></place> Experience:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ten Years of Reflection</i> (Stanford:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hoover Press, 1984), 70-1.</span></div></div><div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;"><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=4930505977146037246&postID=4139815564514161648#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[2]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Jean M. Twenge, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Generation Me:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled—And More Miserable Than Ever Before</i> (<place w:st="on"><state w:st="on">New York</state></place>: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Free Press, 2006), 1.</span></div></div><div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;"><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=4930505977146037246&postID=4139815564514161648#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[3]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Ibid., 2.</span></div></div><div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;"><div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=4930505977146037246&postID=4139815564514161648#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[4]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Ibid., 5.</span></div></div></div><div></div></div>Character Connections Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03414192939657142486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930505977146037246.post-20567008313483021232011-08-24T11:00:00.007-06:002011-09-09T14:16:17.562-06:00Duty: The Double-Edged Sword<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUE8DdYWpvBwauPJEX9h8sVmiVznM3ftyBZ9CcfplybqrPFy85p_uYO96J04kPV5czyV3elrHrymyPRfwgjk0ZEmBDgQGRb0GZUWEwcdAo-5rBH5x0kEchcT6Q9TqdEMs6NSEac6F1gMcn/s1600/Arthur+Schwartz+09056-Templeton-033-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUE8DdYWpvBwauPJEX9h8sVmiVznM3ftyBZ9CcfplybqrPFy85p_uYO96J04kPV5czyV3elrHrymyPRfwgjk0ZEmBDgQGRb0GZUWEwcdAo-5rBH5x0kEchcT6Q9TqdEMs6NSEac6F1gMcn/s200/Arthur+Schwartz+09056-Templeton-033-1.jpg" width="143" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Recently, a former graduate of the Air Force Academy (class of 1970) asked my opinion on what I thought the Academy is doing well today. The graduate knew that I’ve been serving this past year as USAFA’s Senior Scholar (assigned to the Center for Character and Leadership Development). He also knew that I’ve never been in the military.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Although his question caught me by surprise, my response was immediate. “Without a doubt,” I replied, “I’m amazed at how quickly and effectively the Academy teaches Basic Cadets about their duty.”</span><br />
<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Until this past year, I never really thought much about the virtue of duty. Growing up, my parents didn’t emphasize the concept and my wife and I certainly never used the term or emphasized duty with our own children (we focused on responsibility, a much different virtue). Moreover, duty is certainly not a virtue valued or practiced in the academic world (professors have responsibilities, not duties).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">So I hope the reader will appreciate how much I’ve learned this past year about duty, not only how essential it is to the military ethic but how quickly our Basic Cadets are able to grasp its foundational role in the profession they have chosen to pursue.</span><br />
<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">I am not suggesting that all cadets fulfill their duty all the time. It takes time for cadets to develop the settled habits of the “Five Rights”: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Right</i> place. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Right</i> time. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Right</i> uniform. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Right </i>attitude. Ready to do the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">right </i>thing. I’d also argue that a cadet or an airman can develop these habits and do so for reasons that have nothing to do with duty (such as a desire to graduate or to receive a promotion).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Yet the Air Force Academy is doing something right. As a member of the faculty, I’ve had the opportunity to listen to cadets sincerely express their commitment to duty and I’ve seen them display this virtue on a consistent basis. Moreover, I can’t imagine practicing duty without sacrificing something (e.g., free time for cadets, family time for airmen), and I have been amazed at how quickly cadets <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">recognize and accept </i>that their duty requires them to make these sacrifices, including their ultimate sacrifice to our Nation.</span><br />
<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">But as the title of this essay suggests, duty may be a double-edged sword. I wonder whether the “command and control” model of the military promotes a mindset about duty that diminishes the willingness of an officer to stand up for what is right regardless of whom the officer is talking to. I wonder whether cadets and airmen believe candor, the willingness to tell the truth even when it’s unpopular, is part of their duty.</span><br />
<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">To me, fulfilling one’s duty also means having the courage to ask great questions. Yet in large bureaucracies, most middle managers learn to defer to authority, recognizing the occupational hazards of questioning ideas, processes that are “owned” by someone with more authority. What too often results is a culture where no one speaks up, takes a critical stance or questions assumptions.</span><br />
<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">This seems especially pertinent within the military bureaucracy, where duty can be seen as nothing more or less than developing and mastering a “go along to get along” mindset. Instead, if duty is truly a calling, then I want to suggest that it’s the duty of all military officers, at the right time and place and in the right way, to “call into question” their profession’s assumptions and dominant ways of thinking. My concern, however, is that within the military <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">asking great questions</i> is too often seen as an act of defiance or disobedience, rather than as the actions of someone fully committed to his or her duty as a military officer.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Of course, there are a set of skills associated with asking great questions or speaking with candor. We all know that asking a question at the right time or speaking with candor in the right way makes a difference. But these skills ought to be modeled and taught by military leaders who aim to create a culture where candor and asking great questions is valued and ever-present. Even at the Air Force Academy, I’d argue that once cadets have displayed competence in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what</i> they need to do and learn <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">how</i> to do it, we should begin to encourage cadets to ask “why” questions, even those thorny, difficult questions that may challenge the veracity and effectiveness of the Academy’s many long-standing traditions and practices. Moreover, these questions, raised mostly by fourth and third class cadets, should be fully answered by the upper classmen within their Squadron. Indeed, my hope would be that over time the Wing leadership will display the courage to strengthen or enhance a particular tradition or practice, all because a third-class cadet had the courage, as part of his or her duty, to respectfully ask “why do we do it this way?”</span><br />
<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">For me, “ready to do the right thing” captures the essence of duty. I also suspect that most of the time “the right thing” has little to do with acts of candor or asking great questions. But sometimes the “right thing” is about the courage to stand up for one’s subordinates or to ask a question in the search of a better way to do things. In any organization, there are times when speaking with candor or asking a question is a matter of your responsibility. And in the military, it’s your duty.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">by Dr. Arthur J. Schwartz</span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Senior Scholar at Center for Character and Leadership Development</span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">U.S. Air Force Academy</span></i></div><span style="font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div>Character Connections Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03414192939657142486noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4930505977146037246.post-76447940293914603292011-08-23T10:58:00.014-06:002011-09-16T10:09:06.529-06:00Duty and the Repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxQx5vGjCeQmuxUjhWtwVdnenCORmGwQ_yauodhq8f-fgwLh2WLGRgJlrOrzIkqzey4KuKWVoPPxw5pnCQD_Dgb0Gog75XUaguQPSnCRbSw-kK_4r2bZPDlByxXlF2BQX9YcJ2v_jbyekE/s1600/Packard_GaryA_Col.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxQx5vGjCeQmuxUjhWtwVdnenCORmGwQ_yauodhq8f-fgwLh2WLGRgJlrOrzIkqzey4KuKWVoPPxw5pnCQD_Dgb0Gog75XUaguQPSnCRbSw-kK_4r2bZPDlByxXlF2BQX9YcJ2v_jbyekE/s200/Packard_GaryA_Col.jpg" width="161" /></a></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Back home, I am a Permanent Professor of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the Air Force Academy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am spending a year on a “deployment sabbatical” so I can better prepare cadets to be the next generation of Air Force leaders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While preparing to deploy, I reflected on what I wanted to accomplish in the six months I would be gone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had not been overseas in an operational capacity in many years and I wanted to add value to the deployed mission.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I reflected, I recalled a quote by Robert E. Lee, “<span style="color: black;">Duty, then is the sublimest word in our language. You cannot do more; you should never wish to do less</span>.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I deployed with simple goals:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do my duty at all times and make a difference wherever I serve.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I am serving at a rear echelon location leading a wing staff that supports the warfighter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our wing executes approximately 30% of the daily Air and Space Tasking Order.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At our morning commander’s update, I see the amazing work our forces are doing around the theater and I am humbled by their courage and professionalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">My current duty is much different from my previous duty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I spent the first half of my “deployment sabbatical” deployed to the Pentagon as the Air Force writer on the SecDef’s Comprehensive Review Working Group (CRWG) study of the impact of repealing </span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: NewAster; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the law known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I led the team responsible for writing the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Support Plan for Implementation,</i> which is the basis for the Air Force’s Tier I, II, and III training.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leadership-Professionalism-Discipline-Respect</i>, the Air Force’s themes for repeal training, are spot-on with the CRWG report and with academic research related to organizational change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: NewAster; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">However, these themes will ring hollow if we do not professionally execute repeal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All Airmen – commissioned and enlisted, uniformed and civilian – must execute repeal with courage, integrity, excellence, and service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must do our duty and uphold our commitment to the Oath of Office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once DADT is repealed, it becomes the law of the land and we are duty-bound to uphold all laws to the best of our ability.</span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">With the repeal of DADT, our duty as American Airmen to uphold our Oath of Office remains unchanged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must do our duty to keep our standards high; create an environment free from barriers that prevent Airmen from rising to the highest level of responsibility possible; and ensure all who serve are able to do their duty without fear of reprisal, harassment, or prejudice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must do our duty to protect personal beliefs while honoring and respecting <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ALL</i> who serve; evaluate others based solely on individual merit, fitness, and capability; and treat others with dignity, courtesy, and respect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must do our duty to create a cohesive team able to win our nation’s battles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must do our duty to do the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We can never do more; we should never wish to do less.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"></span> </div><div class="MsoHeader" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>By Col Gary A. Packard, Jr., Colonel, USAF</em></span></div><div class="MsoHeader" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>Director of Staff, 379 AEW, Southwest Asia</em></span></u></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"></div></div></div>Character Connections Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03414192939657142486noreply@blogger.com0