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Leadership Forum: The Pursuit of Excellence

By Midshipman First Class Brad Rex, U. S. Navy
July 1981
Proceedings
Vol. 107/7/941
Article
View Issue
Comments

This html article is produced from an uncorrected text file through optical character recognition. Prior to 1940 articles all text has been corrected, but from 1940 to the present most still remain uncorrected.  Artifacts of the scans are misspellings, out-of-context footnotes and sidebars, and other inconsistencies.  Adjacent to each text file is a PDF of the article, which accurately and fully conveys the content as it appeared in the issue.  The uncorrected text files have been included to enhance the searchability of our content, on our site and in search engines, for our membership, the research community and media organizations. We are working now to provide clean text files for the entire collection.

 

In studying some of the

leads'*

produced by societies throughout

his­

tory, one striking quality become^

The Pursuit of Excellence

By Midshipman First Class Brad Rex, U. S. Navy

parent—the rich diversity of such ers in background, physical ma e^_

and mental abilities. While this

versity strengthens the egalitarian^ ^

gument that ail have the potentia

■ cian ’

be leaders, it hinders the academic

study of the traits possessed by -

leaden

. drive

Yet, there is one quality, one1

who ^

which is possessed by those come society’s leaders—an all-c° ^ ing commitment to excellence•        ^

link between leadership and exce

is not direct, i.e., one does not

essarily become a leader because

he(

llencc

she is excellent or pursues exce ^

Rather, the qualities possesseu ^ who pursue excellence are those ities demanded by a society oflts ^ ers. Thus, in recognizing a PerS?^oflfl' seeks excellence, a society aC [0 edges one who has the capab1'

lead.

Those who pursue excellence

make three important decisions-

nUst

0fat;

must be determined; the means^

taining the goal must be chosen-

a commitment to achieving must

the

th"*

be made. In resolving t^ieS^|eo(f

questions, the pursuer of e%c c j

demanded

exhibits four traits leader—decisiveness, rity, and courage.  .^ef

By determining a goal, fhe [on

honesty,

matU'

brings a focus to his life. The q

\oW

for the potential leader is n° "What should I do with my 1* e' „ fiie

rather "Are my actions

leading

closer to excellence?” The trern,e„

energy previously consumed in

do"5

divei

.fit,

use°

unproductive tangents can now

productively to gain an ultim*^^

“Through his personal decision to pursue excellence, the future leader has determined a destination and a path. Yet, the . . . final test must be passed—a test of perseverance and dedication. ”

•    • j ..             •     . ■ l pvCC*1 •

jective. The area in whicn c ^ is is sought is unimportant. The ^eSt to choose an area and become js excelled h( be s°ug s

• i(\de^Ci in others, with concomitant

in influence, power, prestige, an ^ ership. Thus scholar-athletes w in two areas of endeavor are hig

in that field. When achieved in one area, it can

spected.

The pursuer of excellence ha s

ven"'

shown his first attribute—^eClS1 in 1 The decision to pursue excellen

74

Proceedings

 

whC'uC             Provides a scale upon

and*"- 0t^*er decisions can be weighed

Only

tcsted. However, decisiveness

Paths are open to those who excellence

Pursue

S"' sW«“

sub:

anrl u                                                    ak'-

y being changed, therefore, s overriding concern is to win play^?016 ancf achieve excellence, he socjpt-,.'^ established rules. From a

above

truste°dClety feels that his word can be a hard eyen when the truth implies

lead °ne t*1e cr‘ter*a by which a 's Judged. The potential leader his l, CXt ex'1'*->‘t honesty, attained in g0a|C °*ce °f the means to reach his

two

-an easy path of toad u- °r a rnore difficult

sub' IC^* ^emands that the means not hi JUkate the ends. The pursuer of the cejtf”1 excehence looks askance at de- J^e ^ methods for attaining his goal.

strict ^ r^*S n0t ^0r ^ear society’s

lengeUfeS ^Ut ratf'er because the chal- celletlcan^ sat*sfaction of pursuing ex- is no 6 are diminished when fairness lenceC employed- The seeker of excel- w;nn Un<^erstands that there can be no < when the rules of the game are

since h‘

the S overriding concern is to win §an-

•ys by

exCen^ S Point of view, the seeker of acter Cr*5e aPPears to be strong of char- The L,a °Ve temptation and reproach.

•j. Path with few shortcuts.

*UUs *.L

suef ne potential leader and pur- excellence has now evidenced

two vital attributes for successful lead­ership—decisiveness      and honesty.

Through his personal decision to pur­sue excellence, the future leader has determined a destination and a path. Yet, the third and final test must be passed—a test of perseverance and ded­ication. The pursuer of excellence must make a commitment to excellence. It is by this commitment that the seeker of excellence overcomes obstacles.

In making his commitment to ex­cellence, the potential leader shows the final qualities—maturity and courage. Commitment implies discipline, a choice between what one wishes to do and what one must do. The pursuer of excellence seeks long-term accomplish­ment rather than short-term pleasure. The loss of short-term leisure is, in effect, the price of excellence. Few are willing to pay this price, yet those who do exhibit the foresightedness and maturity demanded of a leader. The leader must make hard choices, choices whose long-term implications are fre­quently not understood by his follow­ers, but whose short-term denials are painfully felt. Because he has made such choices in his personal life, the pursuer of excellence can persuade oth­ers of the need to follow difficult paths for the good of the society.

While the seeker of excellence by his example and sacrifice will be able to convince most of his followers, a vocal minority will probably not accept his judgments. To deal with this group, the potential leader will require the final quality in his pursuit of excel­lence—courage.

Douglas MacArthur, in a public statement in New York on 26 January 1964, recognized the need for courage in the pursuit of excellence:

“Last, but by no means least, courage—moral courage, the cour­age of one’s convictions, the courage to see things through. The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. It’s the age-old struggle—the roar of the crowd on one side and the voice of your conscience on the other.” (emphasis added)

The pursuer of excellence hears the roar of the crowd exclaiming the benefits of mediocrity and listing the adversities faced by those who attempt to excel. Yet, those who pursue excellence are undeterred by such exclamations and excited more by the prospects of the future than the sacrifices of the present. As a leader dealing with his society, the pursuer of excellence can thus focus on the needs of the majority, ignoring personal attacks from a vituperative few, and is thus awarded the respon­sibility and respect he richly deserves.

 

Comment and Discussion

(Continued from page 25)

 

J'h ■

ttej-j. J^’nS Offensively”

T-Q.'o’D Parker. pp. 26-31, April 1981; V^,rke’ P' 2 b Jane 1981

Q

K^n(der Harlan K. Uliman, U. S. (°°'94?mandinZ °fficer’ USS DuPont cb'arly a '^~0>mmander Parker is COricerna^ *nte^*8ent> competent, and °n the 6 naval officer with his finger alarge pu*se of a major problem. But part of that problem is reflected by the “traditional” thought which adjudged this essay to be a prize winner and contributed, unwittingly perhaps, to the malaise which always seems to favor problem identification (with some bemoaning) over problem solution.

Don’t get me wrong; there is noth­ing inherently sinful about “thinking offensively,” provided one is also thinking clearly and properly at the same time. Perhaps neither Vince Lom­bardi nor Karl von Clausewitz would have agreed with the sentiment which

always favored the offense (neither did!), and perhaps if Admiral Halsey could have refought Leyte Gulf he might have done things differently. But, historical examples can demon­strate anything except accurately pre­dicting the future, and certainly, "thinking offensively" is a catchy phrase which, no doubt, will be with us for a while.

The problem is defining exactly what that phrase should and does mean.

If, by thinking offensively, one

 

75

[»s / july 1981

Digital Proceedings content made possible by a gift from CAPT Roger Ekman, USN (Ret.)

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