Exceptional Leadership : Lessons from the Founding Leaders

America is best described by values of independence, freedom, and liberty. These values led our founding leaders to undertake revolution. America is American because being Americans each of us assimilates from birth these ideals and values. Americans intuitively assume that they have rights that no one—not their bosses or even government can take away. They see themselves as free enough to choose the kind of life they will live and able to move from where they are to anyplace else—both literally and metaphysically.

American workers think they have the right to work or not to work according to their—the worker’s—standards and values of what is appropriate. They grant their bosses fealty as a personal decision and not through compulsion. Of course, most Americans understand that work life entails some limits on personal freedom. But, importantly, the idea and the ideal of freedom are fundamentally present in their make-up. Figuratively, the sky is the only limit to our potential for personal and professional development. Workers expect these values to be honored in the workplace. When they are not, they expend energy in thwarting work systems to maximize their ability to do what their leader wants, but in their way.