Pre-Summit Seminar #1
"The Leader's Compass: Credibility, Trust and Character"

The Pre-Summit of the Leadership Excellence Summit began with Dennis F. Haley, Chief Executive Officer of Academy Leadership, LLC, welcoming the participants and explaining that the day would be focused on "how credibility, trust and character energize leaders like yourselves and in turn, your people."

Dr. Perry J. Martini
Director Executive Leadership Programs
Academy Leadership, LLC

After introductory remarks, Perry Martini and Ken Lathrop discussed the innovative "Energize2Lead Profile." Martini is a 1971 graduate of the United States Naval Academy and later earned three masters' degrees in business, education and international affairs. In 2000, he received his doctoral degree in education from George Washington University. Martini was a Naval Aviator and served with distinction for 27 years in several leadership positions, including Commanding Officer of a Navy P-3 Squadron in Keflavik, Iceland. In his last tour of duty at the Naval Academy, he was the Deputy Director of Athletics and also served in a pivotal role in the development of the leadership and ethics curriculum as an Adjunct Professor. Martini also served as the Assistant Secretary of Higher Education in Maryland. He has published numerous journal articles and publications related to the governance and leadership for higher education in the State of Maryland and the University System. As an Adjunct Professor at Regent, Villanova and The George Washington University, he teaches leadership, ethics, research and organizational management.

Ken Lathrop
President
Hardwired, Inc.

For the last 10 years, Lathrop, President and Founder of Hardwired, Inc., has focused his efforts on researching the link between company culture and organizational effectiveness and profitability and using these findings to create a new approach in helping organization increase effectiveness. This research has lead to breakthroughs in understanding how conventional performance review systems effect personal productivity and how the most frustrating organizational conflicts can create the most powerful teambuilding opportunities. In 2002, Lathrop and his research team began the development of the Hardwired assessment and consulting software package.

Knowing yourself is key to being a good leader and often we don't know ourselves as well as we think. "We're masters of self-deception when it comes to the type of leader we are," Lathrop said. That's where the Energize2Lead Profile came in. Each Pre-Summit attendee filled out a questionnaire prior to their arrival. Through these questions, the profile identifies your work style, your strengths and weaknesses and how you respond in certain situations using colors as indicators. All attendees had their profiles and were able to follow along as Lathrop and Martini explained the results.

Green results indicated a person that avoids risk, is resistant to change and does not trust things up front. If red showed up frequently, a person is concerned with action, the here and now and is very competitive. Yellow showed that a person is very flexible, adaptive to change, and is a "people person." Blue results indicated that a person is inquisitive, individualistic and likes to problem solve.

It's possible to have more than one color show up in your profile. Lathrop and Martini explained what it means if one has different color combinations. For example, if red and yellow came up together, you're extroverted and you think in the short term. A yellow and blue combination showed that you're likely right brained and you're a classic educator. Red and blue together indicated that you're individualistic, active and you'd probably work well in sales development. Green and blue said that you have a lot of mental energy, are introverted and you'd be successful in the area of risk avoidance.

Each participant was further analyzed according to their instinctive needs, their expectations and their preferred style. The instinctive needs graph identified what you need to feel secure and empowered. The dominant traits of your instinctive needs graph illustrated how you learn, what you trust and how you will react under pressure.

The expectations graph represented your socialized expectations. If approached through the dominant traits of your expectations graph, you are likely to cooperate. If approached through the low colors of the graph, this can trigger defensive behavior.

The preferred style graph identified what jobs and activities you find the most rewarding and challenging. The dominant traits of your preferred style identify the activities you like to do. The low colors of the graph identify what activities you may find frustrating and least rewarding.

Each participant was given Energize2Lead software that will allow them to further explore not only his or her ideal work environment but the ideal work environment for his or her employees.

Ed Ruggero
Academy Leadership, LLC

Next to speak was Ed Ruggero, co-author of The Leader's Compass: A Personal Leadership Philosophy is Your Key to Success. Additionally, he is the author of 11 books and an international speaker on leadership and leader development. A 1980 graduate of the United States Military Academy, Ruggero served as an infantry officer in the US Army for 11 years. Ruggero is the co-author of Army Leadership, that service's official doctrine on the subject. His non-fiction work includes Duty First: West Point and the Making of American Leaders, a study of leader development at the academy. His most recent book is The First Men In: US Paratroopers and the Fight to Save D-Day (HarperCollins, 2006). Ruggero also leads a Gettysburg and a Normandy Leadership Experience, where participants walk the grounds of these struggles to learn battle-tested leadership lessons that will help them meet their own challenges.

Ruggero spoke about creating your personal leadership philosophy, why that philosophy is important and how to create it. From an employee standpoint, knowing what the employer wants is a great stress reliever. From an employer standpoint, it can make for a much more productive environment knowing how you want your business to run and communicating this to your employees. Essentially, that is what a leadership philosophy is and what Ruggero called the "three compass points" - what you believe, what you expect and what people can expect from you.

Ruggero then asked attendees to write their definition of leadership and asked for volunteers to share what they came up with. Definitions included one who demonstrates competence, picks good people, knows their stuff and not only knows what's right but has the courage to do what's right.

The next exercise involved asking each participant to think about an action by a previous employer that they thought was good and actions by a previous employer that they thought were not good. After soliciting some examples, Ruggero requested that each person pick three items from their "good" list that were most important to them and to include these in their philosophy.

The next step was to begin writing your personal leadership philosophy. Before participants began this task, Ruggero told them that one of the most important things about their statement would be to make it clear and concise. Also, it's a good idea to write a draft and then leave it alone for a while. Take a break from it and then come back to revise it. Additionally, the philosophy should have a conversational tone. A way to ensure that you achieve this goal is to read it aloud to yourself or a friend. If it doesn't sound like you then change it.

Armed with this guidance, each person was given an opportunity to write his or her personal leadership philosophy. This was based on the "three compass points," their definition of leadership, and their values. As they began writing, Ruggero reminded the audience that this would be an ongoing process and they shouldn't expect their philosophy to be perfected in this short amount of time.

Once they were done writing, some volunteered what they had written. Philosophies included the warning not to take it personally, the advice to correct people in private and praise them in public and to speak up during the decision process and not wait until the decision making process was over.

Vice Admiral Mike Haskins
Distinguished Leadership Chair
U.S. Naval Academy

After a lunch break, attendees had the opportunity to hear Vice Admiral Mike Haskins speak about United States Naval Academy Leadership Training. Haskins served over 36 years on active duty and had extensive command experience of Navy and Joint Operational Forces, both in the United States and abroad. He served as commandant of Midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy. As an admiral he commanded the U.S. Forces in Iceland, Patrol Aviation Forces in the Atlantic, Joint Forces in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and the U.S. Naval Forces in Japan. He was also deputy commander-in-chief of U.S. Naval Forces in Europe. He completed his active duty service as the Naval Inspector General. He has a Master's Degree in international relations and international economics from Oxford University, England. He currently holds the Distinguished Leadership Chair at the United States Naval Academy and is Director of the Naval Academy's Center for Ethical Leadership.

Leadership training is one of the highest priorities at the Academy. "Ethical leadership is the centerpiece of what we do," Haskins said. "The most important thing we're teaching [the plebes] is selflessness."

Haskins explained the challenges of teaching ethics to the young plebes. They may come to the Academy being somewhat selfish and self-centered and it is their job to instill the morals and ethics that the young men and women will need throughout their career.

During the first year at the Academy, plebes are taught the three primary principles of leadership: know yourself, know your people and know your stuff. During the second year, midshipmen are taught value-based leadership. The third year is focused on knowing your people and how to get people to do what is critically important for them to do. Finally, the fourth year is spent putting the "finishing touches" on the midshipmen and bringing all that they've learned into action.

Lt. Col. Joseph J. Thomas
U.S. Naval Academy

Lt. Col. Joseph J. Thomas then presented "Business and Military Ethical Dilemmas and Moral Development." Thomas said there are four stages of moral development - compliance, moral understanding, moral maturity and moral ambition. Some people and organizations only get to compliance. A few more get to moral understanding. Some never get to the moral maturity phase and it is very rare to have moral ambition.

Mental, physical and moral are the three leadership dimensions. Thomas said that moral is the most important of the three because when there is a failure in this dimension it effects not only the efficiency but can bring down the whole organization.

It's nearly impossible to define the moral aspect of leadership but Thomas articulated it as personally understanding and embracing moral virtue in one's own actions and inculcating ethical conduct in others.

Thomas finished by reminding the crowd that "it's those little day-in-day-out tests" that really test and measure our moral character.

Martini spoke briefly about some common myths in business ethics. They include the idea that business ethics are defined by the marketplace, if it's permissible then it's appropriate, an un-enforced law isn't a requirement but merely a recommendation, and corporate corruption occurs primarily in the private sector.

Several breakout sessions were held. Participants had an opportunity to attend two out of the four sessions offered. Seminars included an opportunity to further expand on the leadership philosophy that was started with Ruggero earlier in the day, "Business Ethics Case Study" with Martini, "The Four Stages of Moral Development and Your Organization" held by Thomas and "Our Values or Theirs: Principles, Standards and Objectivism" with Col. Arthur J. Athens.