This past Thursday I had the opportunity to participate in a one day leadership walk through the Guilford Courthouse Battlefield in Greensboro. I was invited to attend by the Highway Patrol as a group of their supervisors were participating in the walk. The program was sponsored by Methodist University and facilitated by one of their professors, Dr. Mark Bowman. Dr. Bowman is also a retiree from Virginia Beach Police Department. Dr. Bowman used his expertise as a Revolutionary War historian combined with his excellent leadership knowledge and experience to facilitate the leadership walk. He used his expertise gained through his police and military career to initiate thoughts and discussions about our personal leadership as well as aspects of organizational leadership. It was a wonderful warm fall day with clear skies which contributed to a tremendous historical and leadership learning experience. It was really special for me to see and spent time with troopers whom I worked closely with during my career with the Highway Patrol. Many of them I had not seen since my retirement in 2007. Since my very recent posting has been about core values I will begin this post with some of the discussions we had on this topic. I am going to use the next several post to discuss some of the other leadership lessons discussed on the leadership walk, so please log in later for that.
Our group agreed, after some discussion on the topic, that core values are very important to personal and organizational effectiveness and character. This discussion was conducted mostly at the monument honoring the founding fathers and signers of the Declaration of Independence. I think this was a very appropriate place to hold a discussion about core values. These great men who “pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor” to the cause of freedom and liberty certainly had to have core beliefs that motivated and inspired them. Without a deep internalization of the core beliefs about freedom and liberty by these great men the war would have ended quite differently. These were men of great intellect, vision and wisdom. Arguably it was the greatest concentration of intellect and wisdom ever experienced in any nation at any one time. These giants of men believed in something bigger and greater than themselves. At their core they believed in the inalienable right of man to live free. These strong beliefs led to victory against the greatest nation on earth at the time and gave birth to a new nation conceived in liberty and freedom for all men. In the future take some time to study the resulting sacrifices made by these original signers. Many lost their lives, health, fortunes and property for their part in this great cause.
Although this monument is dedicated to the signers of the Declaration of Independence, the men who fought the battles of this war and those who lead them into battle also had strong core values and made great personal sacrifices too. How else could they have withstood the unbelievable difficulties they had to endure? You don’t stand fifty feet from the world’s best trained soldiers to hold your line without believing in the values of the cause. You don’t cross the Delaware River in cold freezing December, marching through snow for miles without shoes and warm clothes, leaving bloody footprints and freezing to death to fight for a cause you half-heartedly believe in. Core values matter! Acting upon your core values matters too!
Dr. Bowman pointed out the crossing of the Delaware and the march to Trenton, New Jersey is memorialized in the official song of the U.S. Army, The Army Goes Rolling On. The third stanza is as follows:
Men in rags, men who froze,
Still that Army met its foes,
And the Army went rolling along.
Faith in God, then we’re right,
And we’ll fight with all our might,
As the Army keeps rolling along.
During the day one attendee noted that organizations tend to respond to ethical and moral issues by creating more policies, procedures and regulations. This is sadly very true and happens regularly in too many organizations. The lesson take away here, I think, is that an organization cannot “policy and procedure” itself to perfection of character. When an organization has an operational philosophy based upon core value compliance it does not have to take the route of creating more and more rules and regulations. It relies upon its core values and beliefs to guide actions and behaviors. This can only happen in organizations where this core value philosophy is bought into and lived by the vast majority of members. It must be talked about and correlated into all business situations and behaviors. It is the life blood of the organization. It is like Dr. Bowman stated, core values are of limited value if they are not lived by every organizational member and unless they are identified as an integral part of the very character of the organization. If you have not read my recent posts on incorporating core values as an operating philosophy into an organization, I hope you will take the time to do so.
Core values basically come down to this. “What do I really believe, and what am I willing to do about it?” What do you believe? What does your organization believe? What are you and the organization willing to do about the things you believe in? The answer to these two questions makes all the difference in the world. For those soldiers and statesmen mentioned above it was the difference between living in freedom or in tyranny. Thank God for them! As leaders, if we want people to follow us barefooted, freezing, bleeding and starving, then we better know what we believe and what we are willing to do about our beliefs. Perhaps more importantly, we must be willing and able as leaders to develop and guide others to these same noble beliefs and instill in them the dogged determination to live and fight, against great odds, to achieve these higher and more exalted causes. Core values may very well be more important to the success of the mission than beans, blankets and bullets! If we could ask the brave men who fought the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, the men at Valley Forge during that cold winter of 1777-78, and the men who cross the Delaware to fight the enemy soldiers in Trenton, I believe they would agree.
LeaderUp, and have a great and safe week!
Esse Quam Videri!
Carpe Diem
Arete'
The Founders Monument at the Guilford County Courthouse battleground.
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