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Leadership Series:
Please tell us a little bit about who you are professionally.
Most of my career has been spent in the Navy, and specifically in naval aviation. I retired from Naval service in 2006, and went to work for IBM, where I’ve spent the last eight years in consulting, business development, and account management. I’ve been a member of the Board at both CASY and at MSCCN since the Fall of 2014.
Professionally and personally, I believe the most important quality underpinning long-term success and individual satisfaction is character. Whether you are an executive in the C-Suite, or working on the shop floor, or if you are a friend, spouse, or parent, I don’t think the bottom line ever changes.
So, I try to live by two principals:
First, always try to do the “'right' thing.” This is more than just doing what’s “legal” – that’s usually the “floor” of acceptable behavior. Even though something may be legal, that doesn’t necessarily make it right. We all need to have the moral courage to do the right thing. In my experience, it’s not usually confusion over what is right that bedevils us.
I think real moral conundrums are actually rather rare. In most cases, we all know what’s “right”, but we’re reluctant to act because the consequences may be personally distasteful.
Second, treat everyone with dignity. Most leaders would agree that the people in an organization are almost always the company’s most valuable resource. As leaders then, at any level, it must be a priority to treat those with whom we work (or live) with respect.
To sustain professional success you have to be trustworthy and reliable. We’d all like to have nice “things,” but unless you can earn respect from others and yourself, your material success will not be enough to keep you satisfied or to fill that void.