A New Approach to Honor, Teamwork and Competition

What Does It Mean To Be A Leader?

Leadership isn’t simply the willingness to go to any length to “get the job done.” Leaders demand accountability and respect where others settle for excuses, abuses and shortcuts.

Being a leader means seeing the difference between quick victory and long-term success. Being a leader means knowing how to achieve goals without venturing into self-serving, unscrupulous, exploitative practices and actions. Being a leader means requiring (and inspiring) nothing less than honorable, noble, chivalrous behavior from the people you work with — and thus, by extension, from yourself as well.

Ironically, being a “chivalrous leader” is a provocative proposition in today’s world, where principles and accountability are frequently set aside in exchange for immediate results and no-questions-asked profits. There’s a prevailing perception that professional standards are nothing but speed-bumps on the road to gain and achievement. We seem to be losing sight of the fact that these two concepts — honor and success — can actually go hand-in-hand.

That’s what this section of the Chivalry Today website was created for, to answer the question: Can the Code of Chivalry be used as a guide for honorable and effective leadership practices?

With so many examples of professional, political, athletic and academic scandals in the news today, this question is more timely and topical than ever. If you’re looking for a unique, colorful means of bringing new vigor, pride and reward to your team, your office or your students then prepare to explore the “leadership secrets” of the Code of Chivalry. What you read in the following articles may just change your mind about what it means to be a leader.

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