Ethics Trump Power

By Stephen Scott

Trust in the leadership of many governments, institutions and businesses around the world is at an all-time low. Too many leaders have an unquenchable thirst for power or market domination and pursue those agendas at the expense of ethics.

This book challenges you to rethink your leadership, to see those around you differently and to inspire you to be a strong, ethical and inclusive leader.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tellwell Talent
• Release date: Jun 23, 2021
• ISBN: 9780228856641

Stephen Scott

Stephen Scott was born in Frankston, Victoria, and educated at Peninsula Grammar and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) College.His passion for teaching leadership developed while serving in the RAAF for more than two decades. After accepting an offer to be promoted and commissioned as an officer midway through his service career, Stephen graduated from initial officer training and later returned to the RAAF College as an instructor to teach leadership. He completed his service in 2003, exiting as a senior executive at No. 1 Squadron in Queensland.Since leaving the RAAF, Stephen has established himself as a prominent author, speaker and facilitator of leadership. As the founding director of his company Laurus Enterprises, Stephen has consulted to multiple sectors including aviation, environmental science, renewable energies, public health, manufacturing, finance, farming, mining and resources, water management, architecture, recruitment, utilities and information technology. Stephen has earned a reputation as a game-changer in leadership through his speaking, writing and programs based on The 15 Disciplines. He leads both the New Principals and Aspiring Principals leadership programs for Independent Schools Queensland and chairs three roundtable groups for experienced independent school principals and senior leaders. He is a Director of the FSAC Limited board that oversees two independent schools and is also the Chair of St John's Anglican College Council in Queensland.Stephen is the recipient of numerous leadership awards and commend-ations, including the RAAF College Officer Qualities Award and the Australian Air Commander's Commendation.Stephen is married to Cassandra and they have one adult daughter, Erin.

Book preview

Copyright © 2021 by Stephen Scott

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Tellwell Talent

www.tellwell.ca

ISBN

978-0-2288-5665-8 (Hardcover)

978-0-2288-5663-4 (Paperback)

978-0-2288-5664-1 (eBook)

The world is in the midst of a leadership crisis.

We have never been so polarised.

We have moved away from respectful debate and towards

engaging in campaigns of hate.

The significance of this on global productivity should not be underestimated.

This is our watershed moment as leaders.

This is my call to action.

Contents

Preface

Foreword

i. Your Leadership Legacy

ii. Leadership and Culture

iii. How We Develop Competence

iv. The Three Stages of Discipline

Discipline 1 - Be Your Best Self

Discipline 2 - Take the Lead

Discipline 3 - Be Ethical

Discipline 4 - Keep the End in Mind

Discipline 5 - Be Strategic

Discipline 6 - Plan to Succeed

Discipline 7 - Maintain Control

Discipline 8 - Be Adaptable

Interlude

Discipline 9 - Be Just and Fair

Discipline 10 - Look for Results, Not Faults

Discipline 11 - Inform Relentlessly

Discipline 12 - Work Hard, Play Hard

Discipline 13 - Generate Unity

Discipline 14 - Uphold Standards

Discipline 15 - Foster Learning

Conclusion

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Preface

One of the themes covered in my first book, The 15 Disciplines – The Essential Checklist for Productive Leaders, addresses the role fear and ego play in our thinking as leaders. I experienced a great deal of fear while writing it, before finding the courage to publish it in November 2018. To this day, I still fear the moment someone publicly criticises the book and subsequently, my work. Fortunately for my ego, I have only enjoyed positive feedback so far. Many readers have explained that whilst they have undertaken countless professional development opportunities, none have created the positive impact on their leadership growth, in the way The 15 Disciplines has. I’m told that it has profoundly changed the way people think, improved their daily dispositions and refocused that lens from which they view their own lives and the lives of others around them. This feedback was indeed very heartening but what surprised me most, was that many readers don’t only read the book once. Many have read it up to five times and choose to keep it close as a master reference for continuous personal reflection. Such is the advantage of writing a simple short book.

After mailing hundreds of individual books to readers, we began receiving orders for batches of books to distribute to their teams. We then began to learn that executives have modified their meeting agendas to include The 15 Disciplines book review, chapter by chapter. They openly share their experiences and reflections on each discipline with the group, whilst challenging and learning from others along the way. They love that they are connecting with each other using a common language for leadership. So, if the first outing of the book has been well received, why re-write it?

The simple answer is that the most common feedback overall was related to the impact of my personal storytelling on the readers. Particularly, how it has brought each discipline to life for them. Ironically, that was the most common feedback provided by Robyn Collins and James Mason during my original drafting of the book. They both reinforced to me, the impact of my personal stories, and how they made the disciplines both meaningful and relatable to everyday life.

This second book is therefore a subtly revised and dramatically expanded version of my original book. The majority of the new content is personal experiences and observations that breathe greater life into The 15 Disciplines. Stories, whether they are good or bad, are practical examples of each leadership discipline. It is my sincere hope that they give you the clarity and the inspiration you need to lead a highly productive team.

Just as I began writing this revised version in June 2020, I found myself with more time to invest in it than expected. I had a very busy week planned with four full days of facilitated work, along with a scattering of meetings and business proposals to write on the fifth day. I woke early on the Monday morning and after a shower, headed downstairs to my laundry, to iron a shirt. I missed the third last step and fell to the floor. My right leg took the full force of the landing causing my right quadricep tendon to rupture, which consequently meant it was no longer attached to my knee cap. The pain was excruciating. My wife came running to my aid and immediately saw me clutching at my larger than usual thigh. She said, ‘I’m calling an ambulance.’ I said, ‘Ok, but I first need you to ring Sam. She knows what to do.’

Sam is the other half of the business, and this situation had just become the ultimate litmus test for The 15 Disciplines. Everything I had invested in our relationship for the past four years, was about to be proven one way or the other. All I needed Sam to know was that I wasn’t only unavailable for the day; I was unavailable for a long time with this injury. She would know what to do from there.

I have found fear to be an incredibly useful part of my life. It makes me productively paranoid. What I mean is that my conscious recognition of fear, and the control it has on my sub-conscious thinking, causes me to behave and practise in a very productive way. I fear being perceived as a hypocrite by others, especially Sam. She sees my work every day, but also sees me when I’m ‘off stage’. So, whilst I share the value of The 15 Disciplines with a very wide audience, I must also live them with integrity to eliminate the possibility of hypocrisy. My relationship with Sam has therefore been modelled on the very idea that I encourage other people to embrace. The 15 Disciplines isn’t about a list of things that I do for or with Sam; it is about who I am as a person that causes us to act productively as a team. Who I am being as a person requires conscious application of the disciplines to my thoughts and subsequent actions. The litmus test for our business in that moment of crisis tested the legacy I have created through The 15 Disciplines model. Due to the transition from ambulance to emergency department to surgery, I wasn’t able to communicate with Sam for over thirty-six hours. It didn’t matter because I didn’t need to speak with her. I had every confidence she would do what was right, and my faith in her was justified.

Upon reflection of this recent experience, I decided to include something quite different in this book. At the end of every chapter, I have summarised seven learning points to provide you with an accessible reflection of the most important aspects of each discipline. You may choose to refer to these as a checklist for routinely reflecting on your leadership behaviour and practices. I hope you will find great value in these summaries and will find the personal discipline to apply them both to your learning and to your unique leadership situation.

Foreword

There seems to be general unease today about the quality of leadership in many governments, institutions and businesses – not just in Australia but around the world.

Ethics Trump Power offers many insights into how to establish a sound basis for strong, ethical and inclusive leadership in any organisation. Based on the author’s extensive practical experience, the book provides a reasoned guide to fifteen disciplines that can help deliver productive, high-quality results, sustainable over time.

Refreshingly, many of the disciplines focus on vital aspects of leadership frequently overlooked – the need for fairness; for high and consistent ethical standards; and for ensuring the well-being of everyone in the organisation. It offers interesting stories and examples about the importance of these matters and how to set about making them an integral part of the role and responsibility of a successful leader.

Ethics Trump Power is not a book about management theory. Rather, it is a practical guide for anyone in a leadership position who is seeking to bring out the best in themselves and in the people they lead – for the people they lead. It is the book the people in your team would almost certainly like you to read.

Brian Finn AO, FIE (Aust), FTSE, FACS, FAICD

Previous CEO, IBM Australia

Your Leadership Legacy

Leaders must understand that productive leadership is a process that requires consistency, not occasional moments of inspiration. To be consistent, one needs to be disciplined.

WHY A PRODUCTIVE LEADER AND NOT AN INSPIRATIONAL LEADER?

I’m the first to admit that I love to be inspired. I find myself instinctively seeking out inspirational moments because I recognise how they energise me. It took me a while to realise that these inspirational moments were just that – moments, points in time that pass. Inspirational moments are important, but they are not permanent. Their enduring legacy is only achieved when we turn them into productive actions that lead to quality outcomes.

A person can inspire another person with words and actions and not achieve sustained productivity. The world is full of inspiring quotes which most people acknowledge, and yet, do nothing with. A productive leader is a person who focuses on sustainability in the first instance and then inspires others to act. Leaders must understand that productive leadership is a process that requires consistency, not occasional moments of inspiration. To be consistent, one needs to be disciplined.

In a leadership context, productivity is a measure of the efficiency of a person in converting their leadership actions (inputs) into useful results (outputs). Inspiration, in a leadership context, is the process of stimulating others to want to act. The plain truth about people is that we are not all inspired by the same processes; what inspires one person will not necessarily inspire another. Herein lies one of the basic truths about leadership - because everyone’s context is different, one size does not fit all.

Available to any leader are three categories of resources; human, material and financial. During the final years of my Air Force career I had the privilege and responsibility to serve as the Senior Engineering Officer at No. 1 Squadron, home of the F-111 Strike and Reconnaissance Jet. It was during that time that I learned the utter fantasy that was believing I had full control of those resources as the leader. As a senior executive in a fighter squadron, my job was to influence the culture in a way that would enable the F-111 squadron to be combat ready every day. To achieve and maintain that status, I had a wide range of human, material and financial resources to utilise. These included approximately 180 people, a fleet of very expensive aircraft, millions of dollars’ worth of spare parts, buildings and equipment, and a significant annual budget. Whilst I had the authority to make decisions that directly impacted all three categories of resources, I had absolute clarity that the productive utilisation of those resources was dependent on my direct influence on the human resources.

I did not personally open the doors to the buildings or use the equipment and spare parts myself. Others did. I might have been the person vested with the authority to draw down on the budget, however it was others that would execute or implement that spending. How productively that played out was dependent upon the physical and emotional condition of the people (the human resources) who had day-to-day control of the material and financial resources. A periodic moment of inspiration every now and then does not maintain productivity in a culture. On the other hand, consistently fair, positive, fun, open and transparent leadership practises in an environment of unity, high standards and continual improvement, certainly does.

As an executive of a flying squadron, my influence on all available resources was directed primarily through eleven direct reports or heads of department. Whilst I attempted to have a connection with everyone at the squadron, my relationship with those eleven leaders was critical because I directly influenced their state of mind, which influenced not only my relationship with them, but their relationships with everyone else. Therein lies the ultimate key to productivity as a leader. Manage those relationships effectively and consistently and you will steadily improve productivity.

What people believe to be true about you will determine whether or not they want to act in accordance with your interests or your leadership agenda. Because every person is guided by how they feel and influenced by their own unique set of circumstances, they will react to the same leader in different ways. The key to your success as a leader is in the connection you make with people. This is best achieved when you understand and respect how different people feel and do what is required to make each person comfortable with you, so that they are productive in their actions.

THE TRUE MEASURE OF YOUR LEADERSHIP LEGACY

Most people understand legacy, in its most basic form, to mean ‘that which you leave behind for others to work on’. Although many try to fashion or influence their own legacy, the reality is that the perception others have formed about you and the results you achieved, is your true legacy. It can be favourable, unfavourable or often a mixture of both. It can be enduring as much as it can be transitory. Legacy also doesn’t always hinge on a lengthy track record; it can be perceived quickly and can be created in a short moment of interaction between two people. Good, bad or indifferent, your legacy as a leader is the effect you had on the organisation and the people you served in your leadership role. It is also the ultimate measure of you as a leader. The best way to explain this is to use the example of an apprentice carpenter.

An apprentice carpenter can have all the tools in the best possible workshop and have studied for all the necessary qualifications required to be a carpenter. Whilst it is reassuring to have all these things, they do not make a person a great carpenter. The ultimate measure of a carpenter is in the quality of the finished product. Over time, evidence of a carpenter’s legacy will eventually be found in many homes. To create a significant legacy, the carpenter will need to practise, take risks, accept and learn from mistakes, and continually apply the learning to enhance his or her practice.

The same applies to you in a leadership context. You can have factors such as a title, rank, staff, authority, material resources, money, qualifications, experience and knowledge. By virtue of some of these things, you may be expected to lead, however, none of them make you a leader. All too often, you can be a leader in name only. For example, you may occupy a position in a hierarchy where people work under you and are required to take direction from you. Alternately, you may be a leader where you have people working with you who willingly follow your example. One man who understood the nature of leadership was a General in the US Army, Douglas MacArthur. He defined a true leader as a person who people wished to follow, who has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. They become true leaders by the quality of their actions and the integrity of their intent. Leadership author John C. Maxwell concisely noted that leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that the impact lasts in your absence. Productive leaders thrive in these communities of like-minded souls who want to follow, and the true measure of a leader will always be in the productivity of the people you influence.

By the time I had arrived at No. 1 Squadron, I had grown as a leader, yet knew I still had much to learn. The greatest area of my growth was in relation to my consistently conscious state of mind. Whilst I was still yet to master all of my actions, I was gaining greater control over my subconscious thinking and making more of my decisions at a conscious level.

I was adequately briefed by senior officers on what I would inherit in terms of culture. The squadron was consistently struggling to achieve combat readiness status, and this was a significant capability issue, not only for the Air Force in general, but also for the Australian government. Behind all of this was a lifestyle that was anything but appealing. Excessive hours of overtime worked led to accumulating hours of leave in lieu that could not be paid back. Most significantly, there was a heavy dependency on those in senior leadership positions, despite there being phenomenal potential at all levels of the squadron. This resulted in a diminished leadership capacity throughout the workforce which, justifiably, pointed its finger at the senior leadership and blamed it for the poor results they were experiencing.

I invested a great deal of time in considering how I would be measured and weighed as a leader in this environment. I knew that I couldn’t make it about me; I needed to make it about my responsibilities as a leader and use those as the references for what needed to be done over the next couple of years. I therefore decided to begin my journey at No. 1 Squadron by making a conscious decision about my leadership legacy. I identified three specific results that would need to be achieved at the squadron in order for me to be satisfied that I had left a worthy legacy. It turns out those three things weren’t only relevant to No. 1 Squadron. They have become my master reference for all other roles I have since undertaken as a leader; within my own company, as a consultant to businesses and schools, and even as a husband and father. These three legacy factors are significant to me for whatever context I operate in, and I use them consciously and consistently to measure my overall influence:

1.The first is the growth in the productivity that was achieved while I held the responsibility of leading a group of people.

2.The second is the capacity of that group to lead sustained growth in productivity without me.

3.The third is the overall improvement I made to people’s quality of life during the time I led them.