One of the earliest “Who Leader” lessons I learned took place when I was a teenager participating in a Boy Scout camp. At the time, I wasn’t content to be just a regular Scout. I wanted to excel. So I pushed myself to earn the rank of Eagle Scout, the most elite of the elite in the Boy Scouts—only a very small percentage of the boys who join the Boy Scouts reach that rank. I became the youngest Eagle Scout in the history of my troop in Suffern, NY. Later, when I attended a Scouting camp one summer during high school, I made it my goal to be named Outstanding Scout, an honor our Scoutmasters told us would be awarded to the individual who best demonstrated leadership and character.
I wanted so badly to win that award, I could taste it. For the next couple of weeks, I worked as hard as I could. I kept my tent and campsite immaculate. I hustled everywhere, and when the camp leaders were looking I hustled even more. I strived to be a leader around other Scouts. By the time camp was finished, I was certain no one had outworked me, outhustled me, or shown more leadership than me. So when all of the campers and troop leaders gathered on the last night in front of a roaring campfire under a sky full of stars, I felt certain they were going to call my name as the winner of that summer’s Outstanding Scout award.
When the time came, the Scoutmaster made a speech about the importance of leadership and character. “And in our judgment, the Scout who has best demonstrated those traits this summer is . . .” I took a deep breath and started to stand up. “ . . . Greg Brown.”
Greg Brown? What? I was stunned. Greg Brown wasn’t a better Scout than I was. He wasn’t a better leader than I was. He hadn’t outworked me during camp. How could they not have noticed all of my efforts, my skills, my experience, and my leadership qualities? Greg Brown? Were they kidding? I went to bed that night utterly confused and frustrated.
The next morning, when camp was over and we were waiting around for our parents to come pick us up, I happened to find myself standing next to the Scoutmaster. So I managed, a bit awkwardly, to steer the conversation toward the Outstanding Scout presentation. “Tell me about Greg Brown,” I said. “Why did he win the award?”
The Scoutmaster looked at me and put his hand on my shoulder. “Tommy boy,” he said, “you’re a great Scout and I know you may have worked harder than any other young man here this summer.”
I nodded.
“But leadership is about more than hard work,” he said. “Leadership is also about character.”
He then told me a story about something that had happened a week earlier, unbeknownst to me or any of the other Scouts. “We put a large fallen tree branch on the path between your campsite and the cafeteria,” he told me. “And then we hid in the woods to see what would happen when you all encountered that obstacle on the path. We watched as you and a hundred other Scouts walked down that path and, one by one, stepped over that tree branch on your way to grab a cheeseburger at the cafeteria. Greg Brown was late to lunch that day. Because when he noticed the branch there, he stayed behind and worked all by himself to move that branch off the path.”
The Scoutmaster reminded me that leadership was about character. He said, looking me straight in the eye, “Character is what you do when no one else is looking.”
Character is what you do when no one else is looking. That lesson made a great impression on me; I’ve never forgotten it. I learned that character means doing the right thing at all times, regardless of whether someone else is looking. Even if this means you sometimes need to shovel some manure.
Excerpt from “The Heart-Led Leader: How Living and Leading from the Heart Will Change Your Organization and Your Life” by Tommy Spaulding (Crown Business, 2015). For more information visit www.TommySpaulding.com.
Tommy Spaulding is founder and president of Spaulding Companies, a leadership development consulting firm based in Denver, and author of New York Times bestselling book “It’s Not Just Who You Know” and new book “The Heart-Led Leader: How Living and Leading from the Heart Will Change Your Organization and Your Life.” Co-founder of The Center for Heart-Led Leadership, Spaulding consults with and speaks to businesses, associations, and organizations across the country. For more information, visit TommySpaulding.com.
