[July 11, 2016] Having been in the military a long time has given me some perspective on leadership in its many forms and how its methods are used; both for good and bad. One of my earliest times as a lowly Private, I regularly witnessed leaders telling me to “do as I say, not as I do.” Well, they may not have said it in so many words but the message was clear. Those leaders were using double standards for enforcing appropriate behavior and none of us Privates liked it.
Militaries have strict codes of conduct often written in great detail. The U.S. military has the Uniformed Code of Military Justice as well as many regulations that go into the specifics of personal behavior and ethics. Not surprisingly, on any given day some of their uniformed personnel are prosecuted for violating those standards. However, we often hear that some people who are guilty of the same erroneous behavior are allowed to avoid prosecution and punishment.
Leaders should exercise great care that they do not display such a double standard. For example, they should never allow a select few to be exempt from rules and regulations, especially themselves. Senior flag officers are frequently caught doing exactly the wrong thing when they abuse their power. U.S. Army General William Ward was demoted and ordered to repay expenses for inappropriate and lavish spending on travel. Marine General John Allen is under investigation for inappropriate communications with a beautiful Florida socialite. And, of course, these are examples of double standards where the average person would know better.
When senior leaders exercise double standards in their dealings with people, it undermines the trust and confidence in them and in all leaders by association. Such behavior also destroys morale, creates mistrust, and drives hostility. This is the very situation that the Black Lives Matter movement is all about. Their belief is that blacks are treated differently and disrespectfully by others, especially law enforcement officials. They cite cases where black men are killed too often by police officers and thus, they say, this is evidence of a double standard that disadvantages blacks.
When leaders are allowed to use double standards as a matter of course, the system has been corrupted too far. I’ve personally witnessed organizations like this throughout my lifetime, in and out of the military, and it is not a pretty sight. Those places are not where I would want to work and those who do work there are certainly not happy. It takes a strong, insightful leadership to move the organizational culture away from such corruption and it is not an easy task. Some leaders would simply prefer to let it go because they believe that there are too many obstacles to cultural change.
However, it is incumbent upon good leaders to root out this corrupting influence. Such a mission is fraught with risks to that leader when so many others are vested with it. Power is derived from leaders who use double standards since it is both easy and protects the privileged few. Using double standards means a lack of leadership accountability and it notoriously destroys good organizations. That is why it must be resisted at every level of leadership.
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