Thinking for Ourselves - Ethic

Becoming a leader is fraught with challenges. The confusion over ethical behavior versus loyalty, teaching versus directing, and strategic thinking versus tactical responses, particularly when managing people is daunting for the inexperienced, untrained, or over exuberant beginning supervisor. Often, leaders are hired for loyalty before any other characteristic. Though this is understandable in the political environments we face as leaders, it is myopic when elevated beyond integrity, cooperativeness, and overall kindness.

Ironically, the message is apparent in our social culture of books and movies via heroes and antiheroes that we fall in love with. Classic point is Jason Bourne a hired “hit man” that is incredibly loyal until he begins to realize the ethical dilemmas of his assignment and is jarred by a situation of killing in the presence of children.

As administrators, we are often “preloaded” with expectations of those who have been instrumental in elevating us to our roles, sometimes overt, sometimes furtive, often confusing. We are thankful for their help and we want to return the favor … therein lies the trap. In a very healthy environment, those issues are resolvable … in an unhealthy environment they result in damaged careers, lack of productivity, and destruction of mission.

Jason Bourne’s ethical moment puts him at odds with the unscrupulous who assigned the ‘hits’ … suddenly, they understand that they are at risk of exposure and quickly move to eliminate the evidence, Jason … the hunter becomes the hunted. They are not afraid to smear his name in order to protect their own. More significantly, they are willing to destroy him to protect themselves. In the end, because it is the movies, they are vilified and lose under ‘right versus might.’ In the real world, it isn’t that clean or easy. Often careers are destroyed, reputations besmirched, and ‘good ole boys’ find political elevation.

As a leader, ask yourself … “am I doing this because of loyalty [or fear] or am I doing it because it is right?” … “will I be able to reflect on my actions and, win or lose, know that my conscience is clear?” “… am I leader or lackey?” “… am I an ethically responsible guide or a loyalist minion?”

Be Still and Know

“Be still and know that I am God” … the quote was offered to someone who often quipped verses, perhaps as much to deride or ‘discipline’ as much as to help. A deeply religious person, she was also my master teacher. Charlie respected my operative in faith but didn’t always understand it. She began to cry … she knew the comment was not a demand.

Charlie, her abbreviation for Charlotte, was a tornado.  I mean that in a very respectful way, she was brilliant and quick and knew what needed to be done but her expectations were counter to my modes of operation. I am a reflective thinker, my way of inviting compliance is to ask the subject to think about what I might expect … hers to tell them … and add “now!” As her protégé, I was more than intimidated; I was often fearful of her presence and knew that I was not meeting her expectations. I often wondered if I would be employed in the coming year. Mid-year, I was plucked from the classroom to fill a pre-formal administrative role as Chapter-1 Coordinator and Head Teacher. Though she had applied for the job and provided exemplary evidence of her capacity to do the work well, Charlie did not get the job. She remained our Curriculum Coordinator and Instructional Coach.

The contrast between us was something that our principal recognized and exploited in the most meaningful of ways. When forced to team as equals, the product was exemplary; our staff development was effective and engaging to our audiences. Her intensity moved me forward, my reflectiveness made her listen. To her, I owed the recognition of my success, to me she owed the calm when we addressed staff with a new expectation. We were a team. I look back and understand that I would not have moved up the leadership ladder without her.

Charlie struggled with why I was moving up as quickly and how hard she was working. Frankly, if leadership success was measured by effort or courage, Charlie would have left me in the dust, I was not nearly as bright, far too timid and did not have equivalent drive.

The joke was that I was the “EF Hutton” commercial … when I finally spoke, people listened … but I rarely spoke, I didn’t have to, Charlie spoke for me. It was in that context that the comment arrived. Charlie often ran over the top of me in my conversations. In this case, we were at a state level conference with our mentees in tow. Charlie was making note of work she had done with various speakers, national figures, and her roles as protégé to some significant national leadership. She legitimately deserved every compliment she was soliciting. She had EARNED every accolade and all of us knew and respected the critical value. Frankly, it was wearing thin and even though I suspected she intuitively recognized it, she continued with ‘more and better’ for each topic that was introduced. The team acknowledged, complimented, and allowed more elaboration … but eyes were beginning to glaze. The greater the silence, the more she filled. When we sat down for lunch, she finally stopped, as she did so, she put me on the spot.

I was uncomfortable and I didn’t have any ready response … something I suspected she knew. What I also understood was that she was searching, she wasn’t attempting to belittle me, she was looking for an “out” to modulate the pace she had set and was now struggling to keep. She was cornered and now she was cornering me to escape. At first it angered me … but just as quickly, I recognized how vulnerable she was. The only thing that came to me was a verse, I whispered it into her ear. She knew it was a compliment as much as guidance … “Be still and know that I am God” … it was time to trust her maker. She left for the restroom, but the entire table saw her begin to cry. A couple of our mentees quickly pulled me aside and abruptly wanted to know what I said. I replied that I thought that, if necessary, that should be a question for Charlie. They were not happy … frankly, more than a bit grumpy, but complied.

Charlie came back to a very silent table, we could see that she had been crying. The only empty chair was beside mine, she sat down and leaned my way, “Thank you!”

I appreciated the comment, it validated what I stood for in a single phrase.

As I looked up, all eyes were fixed on the two of us. There was no question everyone had heard. There was no question they understood. I gave Charlie a hug.

A Leadership Intro

I love to learn. In education, this process often becomes dulled by repetition, extraneous pressures, or maybe by difficulty of balancing the unknown challenges of building scaffolding or reach. My Master’s program reached me as no other program I had experienced. I attribute the difference to appreciation of individual differences, both strength and weakness, and willingness to utilize those differences by instructors and by classmates (truly by teammates). I learned from everyone associated with the program. As we went along, we learned new ideas, materials, and techniques, but we also learned our strengths, weaknesses, and areas of growth. It was an extraordinary experience, an experience of family.

Sometimes your strengths come externally. Several times during the program, some of those strengths were highlighted to me. Those highlights took me to my roots and helped me understand how, after 15 years of teaching, I had committed to this vocation those many years ago.

My father, a farmer, never viewed himself as an "educated" person. During the program, the candles he lit many years ago illustrated many of the concepts covered in coursework. I remembered the instructions (for a day's chores) he would dictate over the course of 5-10 minutes expecting me, as a 10 year old, to remember. When I wasn't able to repeat to him all that he had said, he would, after a moment of irritation, give me some key tools to scaffold my memory for the information and we would try again. Writing it down meant possibly losing the paper and all of the instructions as well . . . no good! Needless to say, the work was completed and I learned word games, visualization techniques, and the interconnectivity of concepts in order to NOT FORGET what was supposed to be done. Exemplars, Concept Attainment, "gee whiz dad!" you should have earned your doctorate by now! I guess now I have the labels and a few more ways to use them. More importantly, I have classroom techniques that connect far more intuitively than I previously understood.

My mother, a pastor, was the example of 'drive.' Satisfaction with the 'status quo' was neither acceptable nor (more importantly) of interest She saw a world that was seasoned for exploration, full of people with different ideas, exciting and worthy of distribution. Daily, she reached to others that she might share with or learn from. Interesting, that along with the insatiable drive, came a deep compassion for the disenfranchised that would not allow stragglers to be dismissed. The little one following the pack would catch her eye and the whole team would stop until they were again, indeed a team. Even the 'least' had a worthy contribution that must be shared. The weak, the bleak, and the unique, together made a pretty tough team to beat. Somehow strength came from odd corners but still came. My recent learning experience has helped me reconsider why those teams were successful. Throughout the program, new strengths were discovered from every angle. Those viewing themselves as 'newbies' and 'inexperienced' helped build some of the strongest coalitions of our courses.

My brothers and sisters (and the adopted) comprised a team of up to eight of us scattered across our farms. My earliest years were under the tutelage of an older cousin, but later I played mentor to the crew. We had our share of squabbles about who would do what chores or run what piece of equipment, but generally got along well. We were a team. We shared the same laughs, complained about the same jobs, and tried to avoid the wrath we deserved when we failed to complete assigned projects. What characterized our efforts was cohesiveness in a pinch. When we were working against an approaching rainstorm looming in the distance, a canal with sides about to fail, endangered livestock, or a wheat field fire, the troops ranked together and got the job done. We were inspired. We were a team.

As teachers, what could be more essential to the futures of our students? I hope I have learned enough. Certainly, my current program and the one preceding it have been inspiring and refreshing moments in my career.

RJ Dake

Document to Fire

I had just accepted a role as junior leadership to a paired administrative role. My responsibility was management of technology and technology services for a large school in a metro area. My co-administrator abruptly resigned as I joined the team, so I had little foundational information and was gathering what I could. My principal was new to the school.

As I completed my first month of management, my supervisor, a vice-principal pulled me into his office for a conference to establish goals, address finances (including shortages), and design future direction for the site. We covered all the essentials before addressing 'one final topic.' My new boss began,

"How satisfied are you will Rich (my technician)?"

"Still getting to know him but I have some things we can do to improve service."

"I want you to begin documenting him. I want him fired. People are fed up with him, his customer service is lousy, and Rob (his old boss, my intended counterpart) felt he was getting nothing done.  How many times has he been late this week (I noticed he didn't say 'month')?"

"A couple."

"Your job is to put together documentation, warnings, and process for dismissal. ... need anything else?"

"No."

"We'll meet for your next update in two weeks."

Wow, what a bomb ... not exactly what I had hoped for as foray into administrative responsibility!
It was true, Rich had been late often and I had actually caught him sleeping. A few complaints had seeped in from those getting to know me about him not responding to their needs in a timely manner. He was a bit whiny when I asked him to take on certain jobs or with certain people.

Our next meeting was cancelled when the vice-principal was given a lateral promotion to another school with some new projects. The principal took his role in supervising me, so I had "all my ducks lined up" with all the documentation I could provide. He was impressed with my work and was very complimentary, but began the last segment of the meeting with concern,

"You've got a lot of documentation on Rich but you've only known him for how many weeks?"
I explained the directive I had been given.

"Let's take this a different direction ... I want you to do everything in the next few weeks to find out what is going on with Rich and see if it merits reassignment or if there are issues that might be personal that we can mentor him through."

Over the next few weeks, I discovered that Rich's mother was dying of cancer, his father was absent and he had younger brothers and sisters. I also found that he was an epileptic and was having trouble managing his medication (which often caused him to be sleepy). More importantly, I began focusing on his successes and expressing appreciation for what he was doing right.

Staff began to comment to me that since I had joined the staff, 'Rich had really shown improvement.' They were grateful for my leadership and began to more openly share their hopes rather than their equipment needs. Several joined the articulation committee I had created. My principal was very complimentary at our next meeting ... he had heard significant commentary about positive change coming from my supervision of the department.

Though simple, the experience taught me quite a bit. I will be forever grateful for the principal who guided me toward a positive people interaction.

Rich's mother died a couple of years later, his siblings were, by then, old enough to take on the responsibilities of adulthood. He remains in the same district in a similar role.

I left the district several years ago. Though I had moved to another state, Rich recently contacted me to let me know that he had recently gotten married and purchased a home. The man that I was asked to fire was a positive contributing member of the technology staff in the very large district where we had worked.

It is worth thinking of how you can build, how you can help, how you can guide to improve your world. The principal who guided me was a wonderful part of my history who impacts my management to this day!

Gossip Damage

Captain Knoppel was one of the most exemplary officers and pilots I knew. His teaching was flawless, his demeanor professional, his knowledge unquestioned, his patience resolute … he was “an officer’s officer.”

Unlike other instructors who were chatty, arrogant, or mischievous … interacting often, having a wonderful time, Knoppel was exceedingly reserved.  He would go to the Officer’s club but a single drink out of politeness would be as much as you might see … definitely NOT a “Dead Bug” participant … definitely not a “cross country” date for those of us using the training to ‘see the world.’ It was obvious that he was highly respected, but almost no one had any indication of a social relationship with him. I was intrigued and sought to get to know him. The most I could get directly from him was that he “loved to fly” … not that extraordinary for a FAR [Fighter-Attack-Reconnaissance] squadron instructor. Our squadron was full of captains and majors, some I was able to get to know quickly. A few demonstrated trust levels that I felt OK to explore. Eventually, I asked a captain what he knew of Knoppel, his response, “I don’t think you’ll be able to get Mark to talk much. He keeps to himself even with us.” The answer was the same across the squadron.

“Allie” [1LT-Ahlers] was a lieutenant who showed up in the squadron near the middle of my training. Gregarious, exceptionally bright, and very early in his career to have an instructor’s assignment, he was rumored to be soon to make captain. What struck me immediately is when Captain Knoppel grabbed him and hugged him his first day on base as he walked into the squadron office. I had NEVER seen Knoppel shake hands, let alone give someone a hug … Knoppel was one to salute in deference or to honor a subordinate. I knew I had to know Allie!

Allie was easy to know and as he began to trust that I didn’t spew private conversations to inquiry from my peers, he opened up. I was immediately struck by his image of Knoppel … he even knew him as “Mark” the first name I had seen but rarely heard spoken. The stories began to flow and initially, I felt like they were “just stories” … in fact, I doubted most of them.  They identified someone nearly as ‘wild & crazy’ as some of the other officers, a guy that lived for a “cross-country” to some obscure guard base near a beach or some history or maybe some other amusement. Mark loved to take an extra “go around” to pull some “G’s” or to spook someone on the ground.  The one thing that Allie continually noted that was absolutely congruent with what I knew was that Knoppel was an outstanding pilot, that he “knew his stuff” and that he was prepared for nearly any contingency [I was intimidated when Knoppel often interjected into a training – “You have an emergency, where is your nearest landing strip?” when I least expected it]. Allie reinforced that image in any conversation.

“So what the hell happened?” I interjected into another humorous detail, “He is one of the most reserved people I know? … He hasn’t even told me which training base he went to?”

“Well he had it pretty rough for a while … ”

THAT was different than anything I had EVER heard. No one … NOT ONE … had ever indicated Knoppel had ever had ANY difficulties with ANY thing?

“Rough?”

“Listen … what I tell you remains with you and me. Capisce?”

“Capisce?”

“CAPISCE!”

“Understood … what’s the big deal?”

“You can find him in the accident reports from four years ago.”

“KNOPPEL????? … ACCIDENT?”

“Yeah … it was pretty serious … they took about a year on it and he spent the time grounded and in front of review boards … no fun.  His student was released from the investigation pretty early on, but they kept him on the grill for quite awhile. Some of us thought his CO just didn’t like him, but I think it was because they couldn’t find evidence that worked with their idea of the accident and the CO was afraid of being seen as interfering.  His CO was Wilson [our current base commander] so you know he is OK with him at least now.  I always felt that Wilson was more torn up than Knoppel.”
“So where is the student?”

“He’s in Lakenheath flying F-111s. He wouldn’t be in fighters if there were a question … I think Knoppel stood up for him too!”

“Why would that matter?”

“Student at the controls at the onset … “

“Knoppel took the jet though, right?”

“Yeah … but he couldn’t recover the jet … Knoppel said the kid was calling altitudes all the way down … pretty good for a student.”

“Wow …”

“Here’s the deal … pretty much everyone figured that Knoppel screwed up and got over excited.  They were doing spin recovery … you know what that’s like … if you can’t do it in your sleep, it can be pretty hairy. Knoppel trusted the kid and went ahead. He was within his rights to do that even if a lot of instructors don’t.  When they were picked up, the kid didn’t want to share what they were doing, so everyone thought they must have been doing something they shouldn’t. I guess the kid knew that most of his peers didn’t have the option to learn it with the instructors they had … he thought they were out of line. The board didn’t like the silence … It wasn’t even a week before everyone was gossiping about it”

“People just stopped talking to Knoppel … everybody was afraid to be seen with him.  It was weird. Actually, I got my assignment about six months after that and man even I was glad to be out of there! 

This guy was my best friend from the instructor side and I was a Chicken Shit! I wasn’t the only one but I didn’t say much.  Some did … some of the officers, including his XO had opinions that they were sharing and everyone saw it as fact. They didn’t know squat. It was a YEAR AND A HALF before he was able to defend himself! People burned him down and any time he said anything, people saw it as quibbling … some even said he was lying to protect himself.  YOU KNOW that isn’t right … he lies to NO ONE! Anyway, he basically spent the year plus sitting behind the desk doing almost nothing.  He wasn’t in charge of anything, couldn’t fly, and didn’t have anybody that was willing to be seen in his office. Pretty tough! He didn’t say anything, but I think his evals were pretty milky during that time and his CO was not doing them.  I know you know that he had stellar evals up to that point just by what he knows and does now.”

“Agreed! … What did they finally figure happened?”

“They think it was either a broken cable or a sheared connecting pin in the right aileron.  Keep in mind what the terrain is like … he was in the farthest MOA in the mountains above the base … somewhere by Poe or Big Bend. I don’t think there was much left of the plane. Thing is, they both made it out alive, no more than cuts and bruises. Once that thing broke, there was no way they were going to recover that plane. Most pilots wouldn’t have had the SA [situational awareness]. ‘Planned emergency egress’ … done safely! The kid said Knoppel briefed the ejection in the seconds before they bailed … incredible!”

“So he was cleared.”

“Even received a citation.”

“So why is not his old self?”

“Are you kidding, people beat the hell out of him … everyone talked about him and no one talked to him. He spent a year in “paper shuffle hell” with no way to prove his skills, knowing his wings were on the shelf, knowing that every kid that might get a command someday were getting an earful about his incompetence. After you hear what he heard, you know you can kiss your trip to Alabama [war college/leadership – necessary for advancement] goodbye! … Thing is … people he trusted got sucked in … he learned the worst about people.  Not many people would be tough enough.”

“Do other officers around here know about all that?”

“What they know is that there was some sort of problem in his past … have you ever heard him talk about it? … or even get to a conversation point where he could defend it?”

“No.  … He isn’t a whiner … I think all he sees is a debate if he were ever to say anything.”

“Bet his life is pretty lonely.”

“At least in the squadron, I’m sure it is. If his XO hadn’t been a gossip, it might have been a better outcome … too much made it too far … and the cloud following him, even without the facts, generates concern. Most people knew how good he was and IS. Now, there are whole classes of officers who have the baggage they will have to get through to ever respect his true leadership potential. Hard to know if he’ll make ‘full bird’ … but we both know he should.”

“Yes, he should.”

Military Officers’ Manuals have guidelines for appropriate conduct of an officer … human decency dictates the same from all of us, even without enumeration.

What is your leadership?