"Officers eat last" was one of the leadership maxims hammered into me in the United States Army. It was part of the obligation to take care of your people. The lesson was not taken lightly.
That came to mind recently when I chaired a task force for a community group. Our mission was to devise a way to comply with a major change in the structure of the board of directors; a change which would eventually get to the point of who stays and who goes. The ultimate decision was not ours to make but we could influence it. As I considered my own tenure on the board, the old line returned. How can the person who is chairing the effort nudge himself to the front of the line?
The answer is he can't.
Taking myself out of the equation was oddly liberating. The situation is far from settled but we now have a road map and it is clearer without the unnecessary issue of whether the chair altered the route to advance his own interests.
Officers eat last. And sometimes they don't eat at all.
2 comments:
Isn't it amazing how those maxims we learned in the military, guide our thinking for decades afterward and in a variety of situations?
Wally,
You are absolutely correct. Some of the best parts of my education came from the military.
It never leaves you.
Michael
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