Even though that concept seems pretty straightforward, a lot of people have a very difficult time with it. I’ve worked in the civilian world for the past decade, and I’ve found that when I hire people with a strong duty concept, my teams and my companies are successful.

Do you have a strong duty concept?
Jim Kimsey served three combat tours as an Airborne Ranger and was recently inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame, and was the founding chief executive officer of AOL.  I interviewed Jim for “TAKE COMMAND” and he described one of the lessons that he took away from his time at West Point. At West Point, as in the Army, there are really only three appropriate responses to any direct question: “Yes Sir!” “No Sir!” or “No Excuse Sir!” 

The “No Excuse Sir!” sank in while he was a company commander during his two tours in Vietnam.  Jim said, “If you lead your men into combat and some of your men get killed, that’s going to be you personally explaining to a mother why their kid died.  There’s no excuse for that.  And, if you’re the CEO of a large organization and have to lay off 3,000 people, there’s no excuse for that either. I believe that once you internalize the idea that you bear full responsibility for your actions, it pushes you to think ahead far enough to ensure that whatever you undertake will have a successful outcome. Because the bottom line is that there is no excuse for not having a successful outcome.”

Wow! That’s pretty powerful. Think about it. You, whether you’re the CEO, a team leader, or the member of a 2,000-person team, have the responsibility to ensure a successful outcome in any situation — anything less than that is a failure of duty. It’s a failure to yourself and to those around you.

Of course, it isn’t always that easy, is it?  Sometimes, especially in large organizations, you can be in a tough situation. Pete Dawkins, a Heisman Trophy winner at West Point, a Rhodes Scholar, retired Army Brigadier General and now the vice chair of Citigroup’s Private Banking, said during our interview, “One of the tyrannies of large organizations is that it often doesn’t matter how good the overall organization is, if your immediate boss is a loser, your world is at best frustrating, and potentially a dead end.  In formal organizations, it’s a tough call to tell the boss something he doesn’t want to hear.  There’s a lot of talk about ‘speaking up,’ yet most people know when you tell the boss what he is proposing is wrong, there’s a good chance you won’t change his mind.  Furthermore, you may get fired, or more likely, find — years later — that doing so disadvantaged you down the line. The fact is, it takes courage to speak up, and it’s risky.  It’s a very personal choice. It really comes down to, ‘How do we want to live our lives?’”

As a leader, how do you answer these questions?

1. Does your team or company operate independently or do they rely on your guidance for every move they make?
2. Has anyone ever told you that you are a “micro-manager?”
3. Do you ensure that your teams cross-train your personnel so that they know how to do more than one job?
4. Have you empowered your personnel to make decisions and follow through?

As a team-member, how do you answer these questions?

1. Is your supervisor frequently telling you what to do?
2. Do you seek out additional and greater responsibilities?
3. Are you learning more than just your specific job?
4. Do others feel comfortable coming to you for help with their responsibilities? 
5. Are you comfortable telling your boss that you don’t agree with something?

You’ll start to get an idea of how much of a duty concept you’ve developed as you think about the answers to the questions above.

Do you think that the senior management at companies like WorldCom and Enron had a strong duty concept when they were “cookin’ the books” and then trying to duck responsibility when they got caught?  I don’t.

Frequently individual employees and co-workers will ask me a question with a convoluted set of circumstances that seemingly confuses the main issues. I look him or her in the eye and ask, “What’s the right thing to do?” Almost every time, when pushed for the right answer, they can make the decision on their own. Don’t be that person.  Stop waiting for someone else to tell you what to do. Be active and do the right thing.  This applies to both your work and your personal life. 

JUST DO IT!