The Standard of Leadership - Do you consider it a critical factor in protecting people and preserving personal freedom?

2015-07-20T11:08:36-04:00

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The Standard of Leadership
By Curtis K. Chocholous

World history abounds with lessons in leadership. We have an abundance of causation evidence of the rise and fall of nations throughout the millenniums of recorded time on earth. We can read of great triumph and success and dismal error and failure. Every great societal success and failure can be directly traced and linked to vigilant maintenance or permissive deterioration of standards, respectively.

REASONS FOR HUMAN ERROR

The Military Academy of West Point cited four major reasons for human error:

1. Standards are unclear, impractical or nonexistent: Standards Failure

2. Standards exist, but are not known or ways to achieve them are not known: Training Failure

3. Standards are known, but not enforced: Leadership Failure

4. Standards are known, but are not followed: Individual Failure

Reasons 1, 2 and 3 can be viewed and debated as Leadership Failures. Reason 4 appears to highlight a fact of human nature that people have an innate and compelling tendency to drift outside the safety and protection of well-meaning boundaries. Parents who have reared children quickly develop intuitive instincts regarding such behavioral patterns. Sadly, some children fail to leave their child-like behaviors behind well into their years of adulthood – a consequence that is often rooted in these reasons for human error.

ESTABLISHING & MAINTAINING HIGH STANDARDS

The key, or operative word within each reason for human error is ‘Standards.’ Without an appropriate Standard we have nothing to unify or measure against. A Standard can be defined as a rule or principle that is used as a basis for comparison and judgment. Morals, ethics and values define a society and resulting behaviors become evidence by which leaders should be evaluated and held accountable.

Great leaders understand the vital connection between human nature and a lack of standards. They know the world is not going to end when we fail or make an error. The Declaration of Independence teaches us, “That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among them are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Clearly, it is impossible to secure these rights without Standards and nations that have lessened, ignored or abandoned their Standards have suffered great decline or perished.

DEVOLUTION OF STANDARDS

Alexander Fraser Tytler in his book entitled, The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic wrote, “The world’s greatest civilizations have all progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back into bondage.”

Every society, community and organization rises and falls based upon its cultural standards and the character, competence and courage of its leaders to uphold them.

The Standard of Leadership is the most critical factor in protecting people and preserving personal freedom. It is where accountability and grace meet and good success and prosperity sustained.
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Response by MSG Floyd Williams made Jul 20 at 2015 11:14 AM

2015-07-20T11:14:10-04:00

Leadership ability is only for the ones who can be accountable for leading and taking care of the well being of others who he/she leads and influence.

Response by SFC Stephen King made Jul 20 at 2015 11:18 AM

2015-07-20T11:18:59-04:00

We are all products of our previous leaders, mother, father teacher, etc... That being said each of us have different values and beliefs that provide us with our moral compass. As an enforcer of standards I believe all should adhere to the prescribed standards. I do see it as a critical factor.

Response by CMSgt Mark Schubert made Jul 20 at 2015 11:20 AM

2015-07-20T11:20:39-04:00

>Is the United States Leadership causing a problem for our personal freedoms?
Sir, Absolutely! I see a set of government leaders who are WAY more concerned with themselves (greed) or offending someone (political groups which goes back to greed and self satisfaction)! When this happens, cultural accountability certainly suffers. I think if our founding fathers were suddenly awakened, they would be very upset and displeased with the current administration.

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 20 at 2015 11:32 AM

2015-07-20T11:32:31-04:00

As the leader goes, so goes the nation. Look at Rome. When you get into the latter stages of the Empire, the Emperors became drunk w/ their own perceived power. As they fell into insanity & debauchery, so did the empire. When you look at emperors who held themselves to high standards, the empire flourished.

The same is true w/ modern organizations. Organizations with high standards from leadership tend to succeed. Those w/ poor or loose standards set by leadership flounder into failure.

Response by 1SG Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 20 at 2015 11:37 AM

2015-07-20T11:37:41-04:00

I believe that giving up standards, competence & character in favor of individualism & political correctness has led to a degradation of society. There is little that binds us together in the modern era and recent history shows that this will only get worse if the leadership of this country is not galvanized to effect positive change.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 20 at 2015 12:07 PM

2015-07-20T12:07:44-04:00

Great article and so disturbing all at the same time. If we look quantitatively at where the U.S. is right now, I would say we are on the edge of slipping from dependency back into bondage? The understanding or definition of “Standards” has never changed for me. Bing the best, setting the bar higher and higher was engrained into me by those Drill Sargent’s so many years ago. Even before that my father imparted into me the same before I ever dawned a uniform. Unfortunate, that is not the state of affairs in our society, military or even our own government any longer. In establishing and maintaining a “standard” I believe they are present. Through the strictness of decisions, they have been established and exist. They have been enforced throughout time. I believe in our current state of affairs, they are ignored or mitigated regularly. Our Military is commanded by Civilians structure who have great influence over published regulations and standards of conduct, procedures, ethics and measures of performance. Because we have seen a societal breakdown (legal genocide, loss of values, shift in definitions related to family, marriage, value, ethics Etc…). I believe these have direct impact to everything we know. This is not in keeping with the current talking points and may find un-favor here, but when was speaking the truth ever easy! And if you are taking notes, I am not about the easy wrong over the hard right decisions...

Response by Sgt Kelli Mays made Jul 20 at 2015 12:57 PM

2015-07-20T12:57:31-04:00

"Great leaders understand the vital connection between human nature and a lack of standards." with the current administration, the vital connection is not there...in my humble opinion.
"rom abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back into bondage" I believe with our current administration, this is the point we are at.

Response by SGT William Howell made Jul 20 at 2015 1:01 PM

2015-07-20T13:01:42-04:00

Funny that you are using quotes from Ray Kroc. The standards that his company have set are less than marginal and are part of the problem of the US. As Americans we have embraced sub-standard as, "Just the way it is." When you go to McDonald's and order a $4.00 hamburger that looks amazing on the menu and accept the thing that slopped in a box, that makes you part of the problem. You should demand that you receive exactly what is on the menu and settle for nothing less.

It is the same thing as leaders. You, as a leader (No matter how far down the food chain you are), accept marginal performance because, "That is the way it is." and you blame leadership above you, then YOU ARE THE PROBLEM!

Can you tell I have no use for Ray Kroc or McDonald's?

Response by 1SG Oscar Rivera made Jul 20 at 2015 1:29 PM

2015-07-20T13:29:17-04:00

Sir,

Great article! I completely agree with the author and also believe that the decline of upholding/enforcing the standards is occurring too frequently within our organization.

1SG Rivera

Response by PO1 John Miller made Jul 22 at 2015 2:44 AM

2015-07-22T02:44:20-04:00

For me it's a fine line between personal freedom and "the greater good." I'm not trying to be Orwellian but I do believe that sometimes the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. On the other hand, especially as a Libertarian, I believe in maximum personal freedom. So long as that personal freedom doesn't infringe on other people. I'm not saying that if my personal freedom offends you that it should be taken away from me. I'm saying that even if my freedoms offend you but they don't actually affect your life in any way whatsoever, I'm entitled to my freedoms.

We Libertarians have a saying: "I believe that married gay couples should be allowed to protect their marijuana plants with guns." That pretty much sums up how we feel about personal freedoms!

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Aug 28 at 2015 6:47 PM

2015-08-28T18:47:07-04:00

Yes as a leader needs to have the appropriate standards, but also live by them.

Response by LTC Stephen F. made Feb 23 at 2016 9:01 PM

2016-02-23T21:01:50-05:00

As a self-aware believer in the efficacious atonement of my Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ who has studied and read the Bible over 15 times, I understand that the original human nature was flawless. However in the millennia that followed corruption and death from the cellular level to macro-system level has ensured that each of us has problems with self control, lust, pride and a whole host of foibles. Each of us has standards which are basically imperfect. Whether we look through rose colored glasses or see the mote in somebody else's eyes and ignore the plank in our own, it is harder for us to hold ourselves to the same standard we hold others to.
The situation in the USA is not hopeless by any means. Fortunately there are many in this nation who are not allured by the promises of Washington, DC politicians or their own state capitals. They do their best to support their families and communities.

Response by CPT Jack Durish made Feb 23 at 2016 10:16 PM

2016-02-23T22:16:24-05:00

When my youngest son was in junior high school, he had an assignment to write an essay about a person. He chose me. I'm not sure if he intended for me to read it but I did and was surprised at some of the things he said. The focus of his essay was on the fact that I had very high expectations and strict rules about how people behaved. This alarmed me until I read on and discovered that he added the fact that I only applied them to myself, not him or anyone else. It gave me pause to reflect for several days until I discovered that it was true (and my wife confirmed it). Apparently he took it as a challenge and has grown into a man with the same high expectations. I must admit that I am proud of him.

I wish I could say that I'm proud of my community, state, and national leaders. Sadly, I'm not. In fact, I'm am dismayed by all of them. It's no wonder that American culture is becoming less disciplined, less considerate, less successful, given their examples of behavior. But that's just my opinion and we all know what they're worth, don't we?

Response by COL Ted Mc made Feb 25 at 2016 3:11 PM

2016-02-25T15:11:16-05:00

COL Mikel J. Burroughs - Mikel; Link dropped.