Practice What You Preach

"Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself.

When you become a leader, success is all about growing others!"

~ Jack Welch

Greetings Fellow Bloggers,

Today, I want to briefly touch on a few definitions about leadership and ethics, because I want to address two real life examples of leadership; one very good, and one very bad.  It's time for us to start putting the finishing touches on our theoretical leader and identifying the characteristics he/she would have.  I have spent the last several weeks addressing the qualities that make up a great leader, but this one characteristic is probably the most important building block, because without it, you don't have anything!  I am talking about Ethics and the concept of Ethical Leadership.

Ethics is the moral principles, as of an individual.  It is the branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions and most importantly, how these impact others.

Ethical Leadership, therefore,  is leadership that is directed by respect for ethical beliefs and values and for the dignity and rights of others.  Apple CEO Tim Cook explains further:

In ethical leadership, there are essentially three kinds of leaders who display egoism, utilitarianism, or altruism.  In its simplest explanation, egoism is self-centered and self-interested (ego).  Utilitarianism is somewhat self-centered, but also has concerns for others in that they create the greatest good for the greatest number of people.  Altruism is selfless and is putting the needs of others before your own.  These are important terms to understand as we look at two leaders who are complete opposites of one another in the scenarios I am about to present.

Pictured to the left is Coach James White (ret.) of McFarland High School (CA).  You may recall that he inspired the 2015 Disney film, McFarland, USA, based on his experiences as the  coach of the school's cross country running team from 1987 to 2003.  Now that may not seem like anything to "wow" about, but once you understand Coach White's story, you'd understand.  McFarland High School is located in a predominantly migrant community that was quite poor.  Cross country running, you could say, was not one of their primary concerns at the time.  Enter Jim White.  He created the school's running team by watching and identifying seven students that would become great athletes.  Coach White opened his heart and mind to these student athletes always putting their needs above his own.  This included understanding their needs of their families and understanding the needs of the community.  He built up the student's attitude about their own lives and got these young men to attend various colleges throughout the state; an idea that was unheard of in a migrant community.  Once Coach White treated his players with dignity and respect, earned their trust, and put their needs above his own, McFarland High School went on to win California's very first state cross country championship and then for a total of 9 times in 14 years!  McFarland High School is now the benchmark by which cross country schools train and measure their players.  Years after Coach White left the program, he is still revered by the athletes and community he helped build to be the juggernaut of cross country teams!  He demonstrated altruistic traits in leadership! 

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Pictured to the left is Assistant Coach Mack Breed of John Jay High School's football team.  You might know Coach Breed as he finds himself embroiled in a controversy surrounding his decision to have two of his players intentionally target an official on field as retribution for alleged racial slurs and questionable calls.  I am not going to delve into whether or not something happened on field, that's not the purpose of this blog.  I am delving into how the leader, Coach Breed, handled adversity.  One of the first qualities to being a leader is ethics, which as we stated earlier is how we conduct ourselves and determine right from wrong.  Another facet in leadership is understanding our followers.  Remember, Coach Breed leads young student athletes who want and need structure, and look to their parents, teachers, clergy, etc. for guidance.  Coach Breed fits that mold.  It is up to him to lead in a manner that embodies trust, respect, understanding, and managing distress when it arises.  Leaders are influential over their followers.  Currently, investigators want to know if and why Coach Breed ordered two of his players to intentionally target an official as "pay back" for  an on-field disagreement.  Now, Coach Breed and the two players find themselves facing possible criminal charges and Coach Breed has since resigned in lieu of the investigation.  Many believe that it was just a reaction to the alleged racial slurs.  In leadership, it DOES NOT MATTER!!!  Adversity comes in many forms, and your task as a leader is to accomplish the mission in an ethical manner while respecting the needs of your followers.  In this case, Coach Breed's response would have been better served by accomplishing the mission (i.e. winning the game), and then addressing the matter with appropriate athletic authorities.  That would have shown professionalism, restraint, and demonstrated the proper manner in resolving disputes.  Instead, he had his players tap into their anger, and he used them for his personal gain of revenge.  Not a good combination which ultimately cost him his job.  Coach Breed failed in his leadership position.  He demonstrated egoistic traits in leadership.  Let's here CBS Sports Doug Gottlieb's take on this:

So that's this week's leadership blog that I wanted to touch upon.  Ethics is key to success in leadership, and these two coaches show two different paths about how to be leaders.  Now ask yourself, what kind of leader are you?  That is all for this week.  We are in the home stretch and this blog will soon come to an end by which time, you will be a leadership expert!  Thank you for reading. Until next time.