BEING A GOOD LEADER STARTS WITH BEING A GOOD PERSON
By Michael DeGrosky
A few months ago, I had the pleasure of attending a lecture by renowned political scientist and author Robert Putnam, who was speaking on making democracy work. While decrying the decline of social clubs and organizations in the United States and the resulting loss of social capital, Putnam mentioned the traditional Boy Scout creed. On the night of the lecture, I made a note to myself to check out the Boy Scout creed. My scouting career was brief, having never gone much beyond Cub Scouts, but my older brother’s copy of the Boy Scout Handbook was a prized possession, owing to my love of the outdoors and outdoor skills, and I continued to reference it for years.
I had convinced myself that I had developed my leadership ethos from a combination of professional experience and advanced education. But what I had intended as a casual review of the Boy Scout creed reminded me that early influences, even fleeting ones, helped form the values that underlie my leadership philosophy. What was Boy Scouts of America when I was a kid is now Scouting USA but the Scout Oath and Scout Law have remained remarkably stable.
For a long time now, I have told students of leadership that being a good leader starts with being a good person. If Wildfire readers have seen or heard me describe someone as a person of integrity, a person of character, or even just one of the good ones, they have witnessed me paying a person my highest compliment. I have spent what some might consider an inordinate amount of time considering how my core values, including my beliefs about integrity and character, infuse my leadership ethos. Recently, I went the other direction, comparing my core values to an early and nearly forgotten influence.
When I stripped away the religious and nationalistic elements at the core of the scouting mission, the influence on the values that shape my leadership philosophy seemed clear, beginning with a sense of duty and doing your best. Leadership is a duty, a threefold duty to one’s organization, to the people we lead, and to oneself. Leading well means giving our best; not as a perfect, flawless leader, but as one striving to be as good as we can be while pursuing the hard, often messy work of leading.
Twelve points make up the Scout Law, and six – being trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, and kind – resonate with me. Each are values, or exist within values, that I imperfectly strive to live. The six values also align with my strong belief that we must lead with compassion, empathy, and respect for people.
Trust is, of course, the cornerstone of effective leadership. No one willingly follows a person they do not trust or who does not trust them.
Leadership thrives in an environment of reciprocal trust, one in which leaders earn loyalty by first showing loyalty, by investing in relationships, and by demonstrating support for the people they wish to lead. Both in the Scout Oath and the associated Scout Law, the orientation toward being of service and helping others aligns with a servant leadership orientation and placing, over personal ambition and privilege, a sincere desire to help and uplift others.
We know that compassionate and empathetic leaders, by building deep connections with the people they lead, generate trust and loyalty. We also know that trust and loyalty represent the bedrock of leadership. There exists a long-standing assumption that being a friendly leader might somehow prove detrimental to effective leadership. Additionally, people who maintain a classical leadership perspective might dismiss leading with friendliness, kindness and courtesy as soft. However, leadership researchers are increasingly offering a counter-narrative that leaders focused on building strong relationships and creating a positive work environment are actually more effective. For example, writing for Harvard Business.com, Rasmus Hougaard and Angela Gest-McCall provided a more contemporary view, observing that studies have found that compassionate leaders are actually perceived by followers as stronger and more competent.
There are, of course, limits to leading in a friendly manner. A responsible leader must balance friendliness with professional boundaries to ensure fairness and respect for authority. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that friendly, kind, and courteous leaders who build connection and signal their intention to benefit the people under their stewardship, produce results.
Comparing my core values to an almost forgotten influence proved an interesting exercise, reminding me that early influences helped shape the values that power my leadership ethos. And I am still confident in my belief that being a good leader must start with being a good person. So, my advice to would-be leaders remains to build reciprocal trust, earn loyalty by showing loyalty, place desire to help and uplift others over personal ambition and privilege, be friendly, be courteous, and be kind. In short, lead with compassion, empathy and respect. Be a person of character. Be a person of integrity. Be one of the good ones.
Mike DeGrosky is a student of leadership, lifelong learner, mentor and coach, sometimes writer, and recovering fire chief. He taught for the Department of Leadership Studies at Fort Hays State University for 10 years. Follow Mike via LinkedIn.
