-Plant Manager in Manufacturing
Most corporations claim to have core values. Most of the values that organizations claim are lousy. They stink. They have no meaning!
What does integrity mean? What does teamwork mean? What does service mean?
A corporate value like integrity doesn’t work. It is just another word on a website or on a poster hanging in a cubicle. Who cares what values an individual or a group claims to have! They don’t mean a thing! Unless…. Continue Reading…
Temptation hits me everyday. I am tempted by a lot of things I wish I wasn’t: French fries, Buffalo wings, the SI Swimsuit issue, naps, and sarcasm are just a few. This is just a sub-set of a much larger list.
But the most insidious temptation in my life is lying. What I used to call fibs, white lies, or exaggerations are truly the hardest temptations to beat. Continue Reading…
There is a lot of discussion of the word integrity in business books, in politics, in universities…in every walk of life. I read about it all the time. But, my father, General Jim Anderson, the former Master of the Sword at West Point, taught me more about integrity than any other source. He says:
INTEGRITY requires three steps:
“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at its testing point.” –C.S. Lewis
Wow. Opening this post with this quote from C. S. Lewis just heightened my level of attention to a subject that has been watered down through over use and misunderstanding through the years. How do we recover the word Courage from the Buzzword purgatory it’s currently relegated to?
My answer is to define it and to continually discuss it. That is the problem with corporate values statements as well. They are inadequately defined and communicated infrequently.
Leadership is a blend of competence and character.
BG (Retired) Jim Anderson, my father, taught me that. In 41 years in the Army, including two tours in Vietnam, he saw a lot of great leaders and a lot of leadership failures that formed his philosophy.
I started this website with this post. I have learned a lot since then. Thank you for joining me and contributing. Every time you comment on a blog, you make me better. Thank you for that!
Brad decided to write a book about effective management techniques. The title: How to Win, described his leadership philosophy. Just win baby! That was his motto and it had served him well. Continue Reading…
Character is now a buzzword. I use the term buzzword here to describe words that we hear frequently yet are rarely defined by the speakers. The Presidential campaign is full of buzzwords. I hear athletes described on Sportcenter using some of the same buzzwords as the politicians use. The problem is, if you dig into those words’ real meanings, you would see how much of a stretch the speakers are making. Continue Reading…
Brett was stealing from the company. Primarily, he was stealing his salary because he rarely worked a full day. However, I even found out after I fired him that he was also using his company credit card for personal household purchases!
In the interview Brett was great. He had a great resume and was a former college athlete. He was funny and people were drawn to him. He had all the tools to be successful. But, the truth was I hired a dud, and it was my fault. I didn’t do reference checks and my excuses for not doing them were lame. Continue Reading…
“At Acme Inc. our core values are Integrity, Trust, Innovation and Community.”
That statement or something similar can be found on just about any organizational website. Most companies and individuals believe having values is important.
They say it. So it must be true…Right?
Just because a contestant on American Idol claims they can sing doesn’t mean they can. Whether in business, in ministry, or in our homes, claiming to have values does not mean I actually have values. Continue Reading…
Headline: West Point, The Best Public College in America — US News and World Report in 2011.
My alma mater opened in 1802 as an engineering school. In 2011 it was ranked third in the nation for undergraduate engineering, still lockstep with its 200-year-old original purpose. But at its heart, West Point is a leadership school.
The primary mission of West Point has been to provide leaders of character for our nation.
The question, “Can character be developed?” is answered every May when a new group of 1,000 second lieutenants complete four years of character development. In June of 1984, I began my journey from typical high school graduate to trained Army officer four years later. West Point changed my attitude about what the word character means.
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