What Does It Mean To Be A Leader?

Leadership isn’t simply the willingness to go to any length to “get the job done.” Leaders demand accountability and respect where others settle for excuses, abuses and shortcuts.

Being a leader means seeing the difference between quick victory and long-term success. Being a leader means knowing how to achieve goals without venturing into self-serving, unscrupulous, exploitative practices and actions. Being a leader means requiring (and inspiring) nothing less than honorable, noble, chivalrous behavior from the people you work with — and thus, by extension, from yourself as well.

Ironically, being a “chivalrous leader” is a provocative proposition in today’s world, where principles and accountability are frequently set aside in exchange for immediate results and no-questions-asked profits. There’s a prevailing perception that professional standards are nothing but speed-bumps on the road to gain and achievement. We seem to be losing sight of the fact that these two concepts — honor and success — can actually go hand-in-hand.

That’s what this section of the Chivalry Today website was created for, to answer the question: Can the Code of Chivalry be used as a guide for honorable and effective leadership practices?

With so many examples of professional, political, athletic and academic scandals in the news today, this question is more timely and topical than ever. If you’re looking for a unique, colorful means of bringing new vigor, pride and reward to your team, your office or your students then prepare to explore the “leadership secrets” of the Code of Chivalry. What you read in the following articles may just change your mind about what it means to be a leader.

• Chivalry Goes To The Dogs: As TV’s Dog Whisperer points out, being a predator does not mean being unscrupulous or deceitful. In order to be the leader in a strong, competitive pack, you have to be honesty, loyal and trustworthy. A knight in shining armor could learn a lot from a pack of wolves.

• Small Business Chivalry: You don’t have to be one of the “big guys” to lead with chivalry. These useful tips from the Small Business Administration show how entrepreneurs can embrace honor and ethics in order to improve competitive abilities.

• A Leader Defined: Being a leader is much more than personnel organization and time management — a leader must inspire, guide and shoulder responsibility. This article shows that chivalry and the knightly virtues are the defining characteristics of a team leader.

• Ethics, Honor and Sales: Are the terms “honor” and “salesperson” mutually exclusive? Not at all! In this article, we see why salespeople at all levels need to be models of chivalrous leadership within the companies they work for.

• Power and Chivalry: Ambition for success does not negate the value of chivalry and honor in business. As this article explains, someone who is weak, ineffective or complacent cannot be an effective leader.

• The Most Important Leadership Secret: Is chivalry a guarantee for profit, success and fame? As this article points out, in order to lead effectively, we must remove the sugar-coating from the concept of honor.

• Do You Create Liars?: Art Sobczak, one of the nation’s leading sales executives, reveals the unproductive side-effects of manipulative “high-pressure” sales techniques. Honesty, he explains, is a much better (and more cost-effective) sales policy.

• Bullies, Business and Chivalry: A new policy at Microsoft demonstrates that even one of the world’s most successful corporations can improve their performance by emphasizing respect and gratitude in the workplace.

• Warriors and the Code of Honor: Col. Shannon French takes on perhaps the most difficult question that arises when discussing chivalry in competition: Why? Her exploration of the “warrior’s code of honor” reminds us all of the importance of honor among leaders.

• Lawyers — Knights and Junkyard Dogs: Adversarial encounters can bring out the worst in all of us if we succumb to our animal instincts, but as Chicago trial lawyer John Scott Hoff reminds us, there is a big difference between an attack dog and a champion.

• Heroes & Whistleblowers: Three women who had the courage to stand up against corruption and complacency remind us that chivalry comes in many shapes and sizes, and that there is often a painful price to be paid for being an honorable leader.

• Convenience, Corruption and Chivalry: One of America’s worst tragedies proves that you don’t have to be a warrior to be a hero — anyone who brings faith and integrity to work is someone’s knight in shining armor.

• Leadership Secrets of the Code of Chivalry: Learn more about Scott Farrell’s popular seminar; find out how to bring the Code of Chivalry to your conference or professional gathering.

• Leadership Links: A listing of on-line resources for managers, executives and all professionals interested in bringing honor, ethics and chivalry to the workplace.

 • True Nobility: It’s What’s Inside

• Chivalry Combats Gang Violence

• Is There Such a Thing as “Real Chivalry?”

• Joseph Campbell on Chivalry in Myth