From the Desk of CSM Thompson
Good morning, it is time for another of my leadership rants. As leaders, we hope we our subordinates see us as someone they can rely on to do the right thing. We hope they see us as mentors and want to emulate some, if not all, of our qualities. Leaders should be looked upon as people of strength, good morals and ethics. A leader should be seen as someone of good character. What do I mean by character? Before I get into that, here is a short story from my life.
On the 25th of June 2022, I was appointed as the Texas State Guard Senior Enlisted Advisor. Three days later, I graduated from the School of Police Supervision at the Institute for Law Enforcement Administration. I spent most of the month of June in this intensive leadership and supervision course for Law Enforcement. This course provided me with many new ways of thinking about leadership and management while reminding me of things I already knew. Like many leadership courses, the information taught as part of one industry can be used in other industries. Much of what I learned in the class that was geared toward law enforcement supervisors is also relevant in military leadership and supervision. Something covered in this course, and what I want to cover in this leadership rant is the Six Pillars of Character.
So back to my question from earlier. What is character? According to Merriam-Webster, character is described as “one of the attributes or features that make up and distinguish an individual.” It is what makes you, you. While going through my training at ILEA, the 6 Pillars of Character was covered in one of the blocks of instruction. Those pillars are Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Justice and Fairness, Caring and Civic Virtue and Citizenship. As is my normal custom in these rants, I will define each character and then add my spin to it.
Trustworthiness – Trust is one of the foundations of leadership. When a leader trusts their subordinates, the mission will be accomplished without the leader having to “bird dog” the process. It is also a two-way street. The subordinates will willingly do the job to the best of their ability because they know the leader will take care of them and have their back. A trustworthy person, whether a leader or subordinate, will be honest in their dealings with others. Trustworthiness is complicated because it includes sub qualities like honesty, integrity, reliability, and loyalty.
Honesty – According to Professor Richard Cheeks in his summary of the 6 Pillars of Character, honesty consists of 3 dimensions, which are truthfulness, sincerity, and candor. Truthfulness starts with yourself. If you can’t tell yourself the truth, you can’t tell your troops the truth. This starts with your abilities. You must be100% real with yourself about what you can and cannot do. This translates to your troops as well. As the 11 Principles of Leadership say, you must “Employ your team in accordance with its capabilities.” If you tell your superiors your team can do a job that they have not trained for, they are destined to fail, and you have failed them.
Integrity is sometimes defined as “doing the right thing even when nobody is looking.” It is also doing the right thing even when it is not popular. A leader with integrity will follow the policies and regulations, even when subordinates are pushing them to take shortcuts.
When I speak reliability, it means keeping your promises. Of course, this also means not making commitments that are beyond your ability to fulfill. We have all had that leader that made the grand promise to the higher ups that didn’t work out. When their promise didn’t come to fruition, they had all the excuses in the world as to why they couldn’t fulfill it. Most of them, though, did not accept responsibility for the failure.
Loyalty to a leader is a good thing if that loyalty is not blind. A good leader will have loyalty of their troops if they do two things. 1. Take care of them and 2. shows loyalty to them as well. Loyalty is a good thing, but we need to remember that loyalty to a leader does not trump loyalty to the organization. Too many people will follow a person, even if that person’s ideas are not in line with the organization’s goals and values. If you want to see displaced loyalty in action today, look at the political arena. Campaigns and elections these days are less about issues and platforms and more about who is the more or least likable candidate. We must remember that while we can be loyal to that person, the ultimate loyalty should be to the organization. We didn’t join to serve a particular NCO or commander. We joined to help the citizens of the state of Texas.
Respect. Everyone has the right to be treated with dignity. Nobody wants to be belittled, talked down to. Everyone has life experience, and while they might not all be the same, everyone has something to add to whatever situation they are in. The newest member of your team may have a different way of approaching a problem, based on their experience. Don’t discount them because they are a Private. Listen to what they have to say. From early childhood, we have all been taught some version of the “Golden Rule.” We are taught to treat people as we want to be treated. Unfortunately, as we grow older, some of us seem to forget this fundamental principle of human relationships. Ego steps in and some decide for whatever reason, they are better than others. They then start acting like they are; discounting other’s opinions, shutting people down in meetings and having a disrespectful attitude towards others. Especially those lower in the hierarchy. This leads to problems within the team. There is a very simple way to not have this issue occur. Treat everyone with respect and dignity.
Responsibility – This is about dealing with something or controlling someone. Responsibility has some subsets to it as well. The first is accountability. As a leader, you are accountable for everything that happens to your team. Whether you are there or not, it still falls squarely on your shoulders. When things go bad, you can’t say, “Well it’s Sergeant Smith’s fault. He was in charge when this happened.” No, it is not. You are the leader, so it is your fault. A perfect example of this is when a ship runs aground in the middle of the night. The Captain, who is most likely asleep, is still held accountable because it’s his ship and his responsibility. The second is the pursuit of excellence. As a leader, your job is to ensure that your team can do their assigned tasks to the best of their ability. It is the leader that spearheads this drive. They motivate their team and make sure the troops know the importance of successful mission accomplishment. This cannot be done by sitting in a comfortable, climate-controlled office while the troops are out sweating or freezing. The leader must be out in the field with the troops. They need to get dirty alongside the team. The final supplement of responsibility is self-restraint. A good leader, among other things, does not make knee jerk reactions. When faced with a problem, they take the time to look at it from multiple angles, develop the best response at the time and then they implement it. This does not mean taking 2 weeks to agonize over alternatives. It means making the best decision that can be made in the time allotted. As General George S. Patton said, “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.”
Good leaders also exercise self-restraint when dealing with their subordinates and superiors. Arguing and complaining up the chain of command doesn’t win any popularity contests. It may be best in many situations to give your 2 cents’ worth and then carry out the order in the best way it can be done. Hopefully, it will be successful, but if not, you have already voiced your concerns in a professional, restrained manner. When dealing with subordinates, we all have had situations where we are so angry, we want to tear into the person. A leader that practices self-restraint will remember the second pillar of character, respect. They will calm themselves prior to talking to the offending person and make sure they give the person the dignity they deserve when speaking to them. Those that practice self-restraint will remember they don’t want to focus on the person, but on the action the person did.
Justice and Fairness- I personally do not like using the word “fair” in discussions like this. The reason is because the “fair” is subjective. What is fair to one person may not be fair to another person. We see this all the time in the criminal justice system. Someone is found guilty of a crime, but the sentence is not what someone else feels is “fair”. For those of us in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, “Fair” refers to that place off I30 and 2nd Avenue where once a year we walk past Big Tex, eat funnel cakes and ride carnival attractions. Instead of fair, I use “just and equitable.” When dealing with people, this is what we should strive to be. Meaning we treat treating everyone as closely as possible. When applying policies and regulations, everyone should be subject to them, not just certain personnel. If two people commit the same infraction, their punishment should be similar. It doesn’t make sense for one person to be “nailed to the wall” while the other person gets a slap on the wrist. That is being just. But lets say the infraction is committed by an E3 and an E7. The punishment the E3 gets should not be as severe as what is given to the E7. The E7 has the time in service and experience to know better than to commit the infraction. They should know better. This is where “equitable” comes into play.
Caring- We all want to know that those people we work for care for us. Subordinates that know their NCOs “have their backs” are not only prone to work harder for that NCO, but they will also try not to get in trouble. Why? Because they know their leadership is taking care of them and they will do whatever it takes to take care of their NCO. They will also “police” their ranks because they don’t want to embarrass their leadership. When a leader does not care for anyone but themselves, disciplinary and personnel problems abound. When a leader takes the time to know about their team it shows the leader is interested in them. When the team knows the leader cares about them, there will be fewer issues.
Civic Virtue and Citizenship- Wikipedia defines civic virtue as “the cultivation of habits important for the success of a society.” It further states that it is “Closely linked to the concept of citizenship, civic virtue is often conceived as the dedication of citizens to the common welfare of each other even at the cost of their individual interests.” Every member of the Texas State Guard exhibits civic virtue just by reciting the oath of enlistment and wearing the uniform at drill. We are part of a small minority that takes our time and money to train to improve Texas. We understand our responsibilities as citizens of the United States and the state of Texas and step up when called. Whether it is a natural or man-made disaster, assistance along the southern border, community health or assisting with community events, members of the Texas State Guard are there.
Leaders use the six pillars of character to help with the process of decision making. Cheeks says, “The Six Pillars act as a multi-level filter through which to process decisions. So, being trustworthy is not enough – we must also be caring. Adhering to the letter of the law is not enough – we must accept responsibility for our action or inaction.” What he is saying is that to be a person of character, you must use all 6 pillars every day, in every action and leadership consideration.
People follow leaders of good character. Those that are trustworthy, respectful of others, understand and maintain responsibility, practice justice and fairness, are caring and practice civic virtue and citizenship. These six traits, which make up the foundation of good character, are also the cornerstone of good leadership.
I hope that after reading this rant, you have gained a better understanding of the 6 Pillars of Character and, if you have not already done so, will add this to your repertoire of leadership tools. Understanding character and knowing how to apply the 6 Pillars to ensure you are a person of character will enhance your leadership capital up, down, and laterally along the chain of command.
I would like to thank the Institute for Law Enforcement Administration for helping me to remember what character is and reminding me that I must strive daily to be the leader that my team deserves.
I will end this rant as I do with all of them. MISSION, MEMBERS, ME!!!