The Golden Rule

This week the focus was on Disciple Leadership. We learn from Elder David A. Bedard’s address on August 31, 2004, to a group of Brigham Young University-Idaho students, that the definition of a disciple is one who follows or attends upon another for the express purpose of learning.  (Oxford English Dictionary On-Line, second edition, 1989)

In Frank Levinson’s talk, “Hiring Ethical People” he said, “The whole goal of business is to weld customers to you and part of what does that is just treating them as you’d like to be treated or more.” My mother always called this, “The Golden Rule”. 

Thus, I have concluded this week that Disciple Leadership is all about being the kind of leader that attends to others, tries to learn from others, and treats others as they would like to be treated, with kindness and respect. Also, if the “goal of a business is to weld customers to you”, I also believe it is the goal of every leader to weld teammates to you through treating them how you would like to be treated. 

I loved the story told to us in our week’s announcements of a formal United States Naval Commander, Captain D. Michael Abrashoff, who began by captioning a failing, disrespected naval ship, and turned it into the most respected ship, outperforming every other ship in the Navy’s fleet. He did this by expecting greatness of his team, while working alongside them in the trenches. One of the first things he did, was to get rid of the “Captain’s eating quarters” and he began eating where the team ate. He listened to his team. He took their suggestions to heart and followed through on the teams’ ideas to make something better. He trusted his team, and expected a lot of them, but he also treated them as he would want to be treated. Captain D. Michael Abrashoff is a great example of a Disciple Leader who had great success in transforming a team and in “welding” the team to him.