Board Relations and the Shift Happens Model

Earlier this week I meet with the President of our Board of Directors regarding our upcoming Board meeting and a few other Board matters. As the meeting was starting he said that there was something he had been reading he wanted to read me. It comes from the book, Shadow of the Hegemon by Orson Scott Card. He read the following to me:

Soldiers who did good work did not have special privileges and were given no special authority, so they were not resented by the others. The praise was not effusive, so it never embarrassed them. Instead, they were admired by the others, and emulated. And the focus of the soldiers became the earning of Bean’s recognition.

That was true power. Frederick the Great’s dictum that soldiers had to fear their officers more than they feared the enemy was stupid. Soldiers needed to believe they had the respect of their officers, and to value that respect more than they valued life itself. Moreover, they had to know that their officers’ respect was justified--that they really were the good soldiers their officers believed them to be.


When he was done he said that as he was reading this passage “It dawned on me that this is what Delarc is about and I wanted to share it with you.” A very interesting observation and one I wanted to share with you.

This is great on a number of levels and I would like you to think about it. Do you agree? Disagree? Do you see this applying to the people we support? To our subordinate staff?

How great is it that someone from our Board would see something in print, think of us and then take the time to point it out.

Great stuff!