I came across this article by Bob Sutton about abusive behavior by business leaders just the other day, and it inspired me: what if, instead of the apparent free rein they have to behave any way they please, we expected the same of our corporate executives as we expect of Boy Scouts?
For some reason, for decades now it seems our basic, universal childhood lessons of civility and good behavior are suspended once a person becomes one of the powers-that-be in the business world. I wrote about this at length recently. So I was pleased to see the aforementioned Bob Sutton article on the same subject, written for the global management consultancy McKinsey, no less.
His piece got me thinking about the expectations my fellow adult Scout leaders and I set for our boys in Troop 292 – the same expectations as for all Boy Scouts, specified in the Boy Scout Law: A Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent. (We recite this at the beginning of every single Troop meeting.) I wondered: shouldn’t we have the same values in the business world – for everyone, yes, but especially for higher-level leaders, who are supposed to lead by example first and foremost?
So let’s take a look at the Boy Scout Law for Leadership.
A Leader is:
- Trustworthy – you can’t lead effectively without establishing solid trust with those you’re supposed to be leading. You do this by being scrupulously honest and ethical, and by sharing as completely as you possibly can where the organization is going and how your people can best help to get it there. Most of all, you gain trust by trusting others first. And finally: do what you say you’re going to do!
- Loyal – this is one of the biggest modern-day failures of leadership. We lead people, not numbers. When we callously cut headcount, when we overload those who work for our success, when we kowtow to the powers above us at the expense of our people, we richly deserve the resulting business failures. Also: our personal politics do not apply to our business! We owe loyalty to all of our team members and all of our customers, not just the ones who share our personal ideological leanings.
- Helpful – this is a no-brainer; if we’re not fulfilling this one, we’re not leading.
- Friendly – again, we lead people. We may not be best buddies with them, but every one of them deserves to be treated as a valued team member and an irreplaceable human being.
- Courteous – as I asked in an earlier article about leadership civility (the one linked to up above), just when did we decide that the Golden Rule is great everywhere except the workplace? Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect – especially those whose everyday efforts pay our way. Mind your manners always, and for God’s sake, be on time!
- Kind – read another one of my articles, “Leadership – treat your people like dogs.” It addresses this point perfectly.
- Obedient – this one has to be off-base, right? No, it isn’t. As leaders, we signed up to take care of our people. Obedience to them is making sure we provide them with the resources they need to succeed at what we ask them to do. It means acknowledging that those closest to the work are the true experts, and oftentimes have better ideas for doing the job and improving the work than we do. And it means truly appreciating the time and effort they put in each and every day.
- Cheerful – as with the point about Courtesy, this is another application of the Golden Rule. It’s also a good way of leading by example – particularly in remaining cheerful when the chips are down. None of us is a ray of sunshine 100% of the time – but we leaders we owe it to our people to keep our negative emotions at bay.
- Thrifty – as leaders, sometimes we spend lots and lots of money. That’s often a good thing, as with investment to grow the business. But if you’re laying people off and simultaneously refusing to suspend your free cars for executives program, that’s really, really wrong. If you’re demanding “world-class” performance while paying below-market wages and slashing investment, that’s even more wrong. If you’re having a back-up corporate jet come along behind the one you’re flying on your company trips, that’s contemptibly wrong.
- Brave – sometimes it takes tremendous courage to protect our people, to get them the proper resources they need to do what we’ve asked them to do, and to stamp out wrongdoing in our organizations. Sometimes it means risking our own jobs. But that’s what we’ve signed up to do as leaders.
- Clean – I’ve commented extensively elsewhere about the current sexual harassment scandals being the tip of an iceberg that encompasses all sorts of elite misbehaviors, all rooted in the notion that laws and rules are for “little people.” Our society desperately needs to return to the age-old principle that our elite – business leaders in particular – should model the best ethics and morals, not the worst.
- Reverent – I personally believe that to achieve the ideals represented by the other points above, we also need a return to faith – a belief that we serve something a lot bigger than our own precious existence and ego. And equally important as this personal belief is a profound respect for the deeply held beliefs of others, especially of those we lead.
As I mentioned earlier, these 12 points are the code of behavior for our Boy Scouts. Their ages range from 10 to 17. So this certainly shouldn’t be too much to ask of highly-paid adults.