Core Principles of the United States Navy by W. Brad Johnson and Greg P. Harper   [printer-friendly]

In the balance of this article, we want to present the Navy's core values or code of honor. These core principles must be memorized and practiced by every USNA midshipman. These values are simultaneously simple and profound. Their brevity and pithy elegance can be deceptive.

The honor concept specifies that every midshipman at the Naval Academy must adhere scrupulously and unconditionally to three vital and immutable principles. Actually, they are virtues of character, but they are also conscious values-explicit principles for living and leading with honor. Although the core values are memorized quickly during the first hours of life as midshipmen, the gravity of commitment to this code becomes more salient in the days and months that follow.

The honor system specifies three absolute moral imperatives: honor, courage, and commitment. That is all. If this sounds easy enough, some elaboration is required. It is important to understand how each of these virtues is articulated and defined in practical life of a future officer in the Navy or Marine Corps. As we reflect upon each of these principles below, we encourage you to consider how your own business or organization would be influenced and altered if each generation of new managerial leaders came to work fully and unequivocally committed to these simple principles.

HONOR

"I will bear true faith and allegiance . . . " Accordingly, we will: Conduct ourselves in the highest ethical manner in all relationships with peers, superiors, and subordinates; Be honest and truthful in our dealings with each other, and with those outside the Navy; Be willing to make honest recommendations and accept those of junior personnel; Encourage new ideas and deliver the bad news, even when it is unpopular; Abide by an uncompromising code of integrity, taking responsibility for our actions and keeping our word; Fulfill or exceed our legal and ethical responsibilities in our public and personal lives 24 hours a day. Illegal or improper behavior or even the appearance of such behavior will not be tolerated. We are accountable for our professional and personal behavior. We will be mindful of the privilege to serve our fellow Americans.

If there is a common theme in this vow of honor, it is the virtue of integrity. To have integrity is to be somehow incorruptible in the moral sense. An officer with integrity would not perform wrong actions or perform any actions for the wrong reason. To say that a leader has integrity conjures a variety of related attributes-qualities of the honorable person. These include honesty, fairness, respectfulness, self-awareness, reliability, and even flexibility.

Perhaps the most precious and foundational component of integrity is truthfulness. During an address at the Naval Academy in June of 1996, President Jimmy Carter (USNA class of '47) quoted from his Navy Bluejacket Manual-an officer manual issued on his first day as a plebe in 1943.

Those who serve on ships are expected to exhibit obedience, knowledge, fighting spirit, reliability, loyalty, initiative, self-control, energy, courage, justice, faith in ourselves, cheerfulness, and honor, but above all comes absolute truth, the final test of a man.

There is something utterly correct about this advice from the post-World War II Navy. Above all comes truth. Truth is the very heart of integrity and nothing compromises an officer's integrity more thoroughly and instantaneously than telling an untruth. The commanding officer of a ship or submarine must assume with unflinching certainty that his or her officers will never compromise on this score. Give me bad news and give me all of it, but never ever twist or withhold the facts.

In my (GPH) second squadron, we had a lieutenant who, after he completed his initial tour, wanted to get out and fly for the airlines. In order for it to look like he had a lot of flight experience, he doctored his flight log, adding flights that he never flew. No one knew this until another lieutenant (instructor pilot) checked his log book one day before giving him an annual qualification check-ride. Upon discovering the doctored book, he immediately took it to the operations officer, who took it up the chain of command, and an investigation was conducted. It was discovered that the pilot had indeed doctored his flight log. He had lied in writing and he had compromised his honor. He was finished in the squadron. No one would trust him after that and he was quickly taken off flight status and released from active duty. How could the Commanding Officer ever trust this man with an airplane and the lives of a crew again? Even now, whenever I fly on a commercial airliner, I look at the pilots in the cockpit and make sure that this man is not piloting the plane. I still wouldn't trust him!

Of course, truthfulness is a prerequisite for trust. Originating in the German word trost, which means comfort, trust suggests a state of confidence and comfort in relation to one who habitually tells the truth. Trust is further enhanced when a leader respects privacy and protects confidence in interpersonal relationships. Honor and integrity hinge upon trust.

HONOR IS NONNEGOTIABLE

In a recent speech to the brigade of midshipmen, Admiral J. Paul Reason reminded midshipmen that at USNA and in the fleet, it is an absolute imperative that you rely on your fellow officers' sense of honor and that they rely on yours. When a new USNA graduate reports aboard a sea-going command with sparkling new ensign bars, the ensign trusts the experience, wisdom, and integrity of the senior officers. Simultaneously, senior officers put their faith in the new ensign. Interestingly, most skippers in the U.S. Navy will tell you that they can tolerate some inconsistency in aptitude and professional competence among USNA graduates, but they unanimously insist on new officers that follow and lead with honor and unquestioned integrity.

Perhaps the most compelling evidence for the importance of ensuring the character virtue of honor in new military leaders comes from the experience of several USNA graduates who have survived periods of captivity as prisoners of war. One of the most thoughtful and reflective Navy POWs to return from Vietnam is Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale. A USNA graduate and career naval aviator, then Commander Stockdale was shot down over Vietnam in 1965. He served as the senior leader among American POWs for eight years-four of which were spent in solitary confinement. Following his repatriation, Admiral Stockdale received the Congressional Medal of Honor. In Stockdale's experience, integrity is a person's most precious asset in an environment of constant torture and threat of death. Read Stockdale's words regarding honor:

Integrity is one of those words that many people keep in that desk drawer labeled "too hard." It's not a topic for the dinner table or the cocktail party. You can't buy or sell it. When supported with education, a person's integrity can give him something to rely on when his perspective seems to blur, when rules and principles seem to waiver, and when he's faced with hard choices of right or wrong. It's something to keep him on the right track, something to keep him afloat when he's drowning; if only for practical reasons, it is an attribute that should be kept at the very top of a young person's consciousness.

Stockdale recounts the case of an American officer who sold out his integrity early in the POW experience. Unwilling to tolerate discomfort and torture, the young officer became a willing participant in recording anti-America propaganda in exchange for special favors and privileges. These tapes were used against other prisoners. Although he eventually experienced regret and remorse at his behavior, rejected his captor's appeals for further cooperation, and rejoined his countrymen entirely, Stockdale noted that the officer's integrity was permanently damaged in the eyes of his comrades: "Those who lose credibility with their peers and who cause their superiors to doubt their directness, honesty, or integrity are dead. Recovery isn't possible."

Loss of honor can be terminal when it comes to leadership. Moral leadership demands unquestioned evidence of virtue; followers need to trust and trust is deceptively fragile. This officer never really recovered. After his return from Vietnam, he died in an "accident" that strongly resembled suicide.

It is interesting that the enemy understands the salience of integrity for leader effectiveness. Get the officers to compromise and you've got the entire crew. In Vietnam, captors went to great lengths to get men to compromise their own moral code, even if the compromise appeared minuscule or petty at first:

The linkage of men's ethics, reputations, and fates can be studied in even more vivid detail in prison camp. In that brutally controlled environment a perceptive enemy can get his hooks into the slightest chink in a man's ethical armor and accelerate his downfall. Given the right opening, the right moral weakness, a certain susceptibility on the part of the prisoner, a clever extortionist can drive his victim into a downhill slide that will ruin his image, self-respect, and life in a very short time.

To succeed as leaders, midshipmen learn from day one that integrity is nonnegotiable. Evidence of lying or dishonesty is grounds for separation. No argument.

When I (GPH) was battalion officer, I recall a female midshipman who came before the commandant on an honor violation. She was in her room one Saturday night when she got a call from some of her friends to come out to McGarvey's, a popular bar in Annapolis. She agreed, and on her way out saw her roommate's ID card on the desk. Because she was not 21, she picked it up. Although she did not ever drink alcohol, she thought she would need it to get into the bar. Well, the doorman saw that the card wasn't hers, took it from her, and later returned it to the Academy.

The midshipman was brought up on an honor violation, was found guilty, and went before the commandant. There she was, her whole career on the line, for falsely using her roommate's ID card. The commandant upheld the Board's recommendation and she was dismissed. But the commandant did tell her that after her class graduated, if she applied for readmission, he would champion her cause. After her class graduated, she returned to the Academy and graduated after finishing her courses.

Although this kind of punishment policy may seem harsh to outsiders, the outcome is a leadership environment second-to-none when it comes to trust. Midshipmen trust one another to follow-through, tell the truth, respect property, and confront any behavior incongruent with the honor code. They're being prepared for what is expected from them in the fleet.

COURAGE

"I will support and defend . . . " Accordingly, we will have: Courage to meet the demands of our profession and the mission when it is hazardous, demanding, or otherwise difficult; Make decisions in the best interest of the navy and the nation, without regard to personal consequences; Meet these challenges while adhering to a higher standard of personal conduct and decency; Be loyal to our nation, ensuring the resources entrusted to us are used in an honest, careful, and efficient way. Courage is the value that gives us the moral and mental strength to do what is right, even in the face of personal or professional adversity.

On his second patrol as the skipper of the American submarine USS Parche in July 1944, Commander L. P. Ramage (USNA class of '31) came upon a large and heavily protected Japanese convoy near the Philippines.

Rather than submerge and look for an easy target, Commander Ramage pursued the convoy and engaged in an extended night-time battle with the heavily armed Japanese warships. Ramage managed to fire 19 torpedoesoften at close range-and ultimately sank three large tankers and crew transport ships.

Ramage pursued his targets through wilting fire, several near misses from enemy torpedoes, and attempts to ram his submarine. By refusing to submerge, by relentlessly pursing his targets, and by conducting an entirely unconventional and unanticipated surface attack, Commander Ramage left the Japanese war ships in total disarray and the convoy largely destroyed. The commander's courage and audacity resulted in one of the greatest submarine attacks of all time. Commander Ramage became the first living submariner to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Colonel John Ripley, USMC (USNA class of '62), was the first Marine graduate of the Academy to receive the Distinguished Graduate Award. During the 1972 Easter Offensive in Vietnam, then Captain Ripley was attached to a Vietnamese unit that was attacked by a large North Vietnamese contingent with over 200 tanks. If the North Vietnamese took the capital of Quang Tri province, nothing could stop them from capturing the ancient capital of Hue.

One strategic bridge over the Cam Lo River was the only obstacle standing in their path. Under continuous fire, Ripley made a dozen trips with explosives loaded in his backpack, hand over hand, to the center of the bridge. By the time he was finished, Ripley had placed over 500 pounds of explosives under the bridge-enough to destroy the bridge and stop the invasion. After Ripley detonated the explosives and destroyed the bridge, the North Vietnamese were trapped on the far side of the river, where they were attacked and destroyed by naval gunfire and air strikes. For his heroic action, Ripley was awarded the Navy Cross.

We would like to quote from the Medal of Honor citation given to one more hero during World War II who displayed exceptional courage for his boat and his men.

For conspicuous gallantry and valor above and beyond the call of duty as Commanding Officer of the USS Growler during her Fourth War patrol in the Southwest Pacific. Boldly striking at the enemy in spite of continuous hostile air and antisubmarine patrols, Commander Gilmore sank one Japanese freighter and damaged another by torpedo fire, successfully evading severe depth charges following each attack. In the darkness of night on 7 February 1943, an enemy gunboat closed range and prepared to ram the Growler. Commander Gilmore daringly maneuvered to avoid the crash and rammed the attacker instead, ripping into her port side at 17 knots and bursting wide her plates. In the terrific fire of the sinking gunboat's heavy machine guns, Commander Gilmore calmly gave the order to clear the bridge and, refusing safety for himself, remained on deck while his men preceded him below. Struck down by the fusillade of bullets and having done his utmost against the enemy, in his final living moments, Commander Gilmore gave the last order to the deck, "Take her down." The Growler dived; seriously damaged but under control, she was brought safely to port by her well-trained crew inspired by the courageous fighting spirit of the dead captain.

These are some of the USNA graduates who have helped to define what honor and courage mean. It's a lot to live up to, but then, we expect a lot of our graduates.

COURAGE BEGETS COURAGE

Observing or reading about courage in action, such as that displayed so Prominently by Commander Ramage, Colonel Ripley, and Commander Gilmore, often inspires others to courageous behavior as well. Followers of courageous leaders often borrow from the courage of their leaders as they face the anxiety that accompanies new challenges, unfamiliar demands, and perhaps even torture or death. In this way, a leader's stores of courage can sustain and embolden those that follow-even in the face of daunting odds. In Colonel Allen's Commandant's Intent, he cites the famous passage from Henry Vin which the king exhorts his friends:

Once more into the breach dear f riends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead.

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility,

But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger;

Stiffen the sinews, conjure up the blood, Disguise fair nature with hard favor'd rage; Then lend the eye a terrible aspect.

Of course, courage is a virtue of character and it cannot be constructed entirely from scratch. Midshipmen come to USNA having demonstrated courage academically, athletically, and as young leaders in their lives before the Navy. Our job is to sharpen this virtue, and sharpening happens when courage is exercised-typically in the course of challenges designed to provoke anxiety and exhaustion.

The word courage stems from the French coeur, or heart. Thus, the expression "take heart" is a call to courageous belief and action in the face of dismaying odds. In the excellent World War II submarine movie U-571, the submarine's executive officer faces the awful task of ordering a young enlisted sailor to dive into a flooded compartment to seal an air valve critical for operating the torpedo tubes. The lives of the remaining crew depend on it. The problem is simple: Both officer and enlisted seaman understand that the task is life-threatening. As members of the audience,we feel the intense anxiety that nearly always accompanies courage under fire. While the seaman is terrified of dying, the officer is terrified of ordering this seaman to his death as a means of saving the crew and achieving victory. The young man in this story does die; courage never guarantees safety or success. Yet, we understand that the actions of both men were undeniably courageous.

Of course, courage is expressed most often in day-to-day leadership behavior. Thankfully, few of us routinely require courage in the face of life-threatening combat. In organizations around the world, courageous leaders demonstrate courage when they:

Accept and tolerate their own shortcomings and failures

Pursue insight and self-awareness-even when this is painful

Adopt a realistically (versus naively) optimistic view of the future, and a particularly optimistic view of what their own unit or team can accomplish

Empower followers through consistent and well-timed application of resources, opportunities, and motivation

Infuse followers with faith and optimism as circumstances become more trying.

In business as in the military, courageous leaders stand up for their people, show an abiding belief in their unit's ability to get the job done, and make tough decisions without passing the buck.

COMMITMENT

"I will obey the orders . . . " Accordingly, we will: Demand respect up and down the chain of command; Care for the safety, professional, personal, and spiritual well-being of our people; Show respect toward all people without regard to race, religion, or gender; Treat each individual with human dignity; Be committed to positive change and constant improvement; Exhibit the highest degree of moral character, technical excellence, quality and competence in what we have been trained to do. The day-to-day duty of every Navy man and woman is to work together as a team to improve the quality of our work, our people, and ourselves.

The third and final principle or virtue undergirding the Navy's approach to leadership is commitment. It could just as easily be called caring. Excellent leadership demands integrity and truthfulness, courage to face whatever challenges present themselves, and a sturdy commitment to caring for those we lead. Once again, the capacity for care and commitment to the well-being and best interest of those who depend on us is a fundamental virtue of character. Not every person is capable of caring. Sociopaths, for example, lack the inherent ability to comprehend fully the feelings and concerns of others. They lack a fundamental skill we call empathy. This is why the sociopathic criminal can so easily commit violent offenses against others. The perspective of the other (e.g., horror, pain, injustice) never fully registers in the sociopath's awareness.

And subordinates know when a leader cares for them. The caring leader takes time to know and understand subordinates — particularly those most directly in the immediate chain of command. Outstanding leaders devote concerted attention to discerning subordinates' primary talents and vulnerabilities in order to showcase and reinforce talents and augment and develop areas of relative weakness. Excellent leaders communicate commitment and caring through authentic respectfulness. If genuine, respect is not difficult to convey to followers.

Simply pausing to speak with an enlisted serviceperson, asking questions about his or her life, provides convincing evidence to a ship's crew that the CO cares about them. I (GPH) learned this lesson when I was in my department head tour. We had a CO who learned the first name of every sailor in the squadron and when he saw them around the hangar, he would talk to them and address them by their first names. Not only that, but at squadron picnics and get-togethers, he would meet the spouses and families of the sailors and remember their names too. Whenever he saw a sailor around the hangar, he would say hello, greet them by first name, and then ask about the family members by name.

The effect this had on the sailors was amazing. It was a morale booster like none other I had ever seen. And it didn't cost a dime. Those sailors thought they were really something special because the CO knew their names and inquired about how their families were faring. You could literally see their faces light up. When I became a CO, I swore I would do the same thing. It was hard to remember all those names, (around 350 in a squadron with one third leaving and another new one third replacing them each year) but it had the same effect on my squadron that it did on my former CO's.

Finally, the virtue of caring and commitment rings forth whenever a leader follows through with a promise made to the crew. When the skipper makes a promise, he or she had better deliver the goods - particularly when the promise bears on the interests and personal needs of the crew. Although followers appreciate adversity and unexpected changes in the battle plan, they will quickly lose respect for the leader who neglects commitments for reasons of expedience, laziness, or personal gain.

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Excerpted from Becoming a Leader the Annapolis Way by W. Brad Johnson and Gregory P. Harper (McGraw-Hill, 2005). Used by permission.

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W. Brad Johnson is an associate professor of psychology in the department of leadership, ethics, and law at the United States Naval Academy and a faculty associate at Johns Hopkins University.

Gregory P. Harper is a national security fellow at Harvard University and a former instructor at the U.S. Naval War College.