Week 7 - My Six-Word Memoir - Leadership Legacy
Last week’s blog posting dealt with the Dark Side of Leadership or Destructive Leadership in law enforcement. This week we will focus what you will leave behind for others. What is my Leadership Legacy?
I ran across the idea of a Six-Word Memoir (Smith, n.d.) while doing some research. I decided that I would give you my six-word legacy as something about me to leave behind for others (hopefully to appreciate and in turn exhibit to others). My six-word legacy is:
The Road Less Traveled Led Here.
I draw this from Robert Frost (1969) and his poem The Road Not Taken, where the narrator makes a decision when faced with a choice while on a journey. The genius of Frost allegorical message is that the meaning varies from reader to reader of the poem, and the verse speaks to the individual in simultaneity:
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| The Road Not Taken ~ Robert Lee Frost |
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference [emphasis added]. (Frost, 1969)
A significant decision that I made on my journey was to select The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina as my choice of colleges.
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| What did I get myself into? |
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| LTC Walter Bland Mathis '58 |
As an English major, Lieutenant Colonel Walter Bland Mathis (Citadel’s class of 1958) first exposed me to Frost and his poem. It was not until later in my life did I fully realize the meaning of Frost’s words, and how the words relate to my endeavors. The decisions that I make at any point along my journey will affect the direction of my journey, and I am responsible for each decision that I make.
The ideals of my choice and its effects are characterized in the Prayer of the Citadel:
Give me a boy, Oh God, who is willing to learn the true value of honor, the necessity of perseverance and loyalty, and the meaningfulness of devotion to God and country.
And I shall take this boy as does a blacksmith take a crude piece of metal, and place him over a forge whose liberating flame of education is fired by the bellows of strict military discipline.
Into this ingot of a man I shall temper self-respect and self-discipline, fear of God and respect for mankind, appreciation of freedom and awareness of what sacrifices must be made to preserve freedom, and above all an insatiable desire for truth and honesty.
And when all these things I have done, I shall brand my finished work with a ring of gold to let all of humanity know that I have given back to the world a...Citadel Man. (Herritage, 1972)
The Citadel’s Honor Code instilled in me a sense of duty (deontological), whereby its ethical principals demands honesty, and a sense of consequence (teleological), whereby its moral principles additionally demands an obligation to what is good for the many (utilitarianism).
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| The Citadel's Cadet Honor Code |
The Citadel’s Cadet Honor Code is “a cadet does not lie, cheat, or steal, nor tolerate those who do” (The honor manual of the South Carolina Corps of Cadets, 2015) . These thirteen words were the driving force for my actions and behavior while I was a cadet, and yet they remain with me today as a law enforcement officer, forged into every fiber of my consciousness.
President Ronald Reagan, in his commencement address to The Citadel’s Class of 1993, spoke of the decisions and choices that cadets may have to make while on their journey. Reagan spoke of what decisions that Arland D. Williams, Jr. (Citadel’s Class of 1957) established as a matter of duty and obligation to the greater good.
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For the reasons that I have undergone the forge and temper of the flames, the bellows, the hammer, and the anvil of The Citadel’s leadership, I choose to leave a legacy of service and dedication to duty, honesty, and respect of others to those that know me; but more importantly, I want to leave this legacy of service and commitment to my children that they may see an honorable servant in their father’s deeds and life.
References
Frost, R. L. (1969). The poetry of Robert Frost. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
Herritage, J. (1972). The prayer of the Citadel.
Smith, L. (Ed.). (n.d.). Everyone has a story. What's yours? Retrieved from Smith: http://www.smithmag.net/
The honor manual of the South Carolina Corps of Cadets. (2015). Charleston: The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina. Retrieved from http://www.citadel.edu/root/images/krause_center/honor-manual.pdf
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