Hi Reader,

My Dad's stories continue to put a smile on my face even now as I step through the mental catalog of those moments.

One of his favorite stories was about the time he and his friend Abby decided to get a little payback on their Army sergeant.

Dad was not old enough to join the Army, but he and his buddy lied about their age and got in. Because they were the youngest, Dad claimed the Sergeant was always choosing them for the crappy cleanup jobs -– policing the area in Army parlance.

One day when the sergeant didn't have them on cleaning duty, they snuck to the top of the hill behind the barracks where the latrines were located – each of them taking turns as a lookout to make sure nobody saw them.

As expected, the sergeant eventually came up the hill for his afternoon constitutional. Dad and Abby hid on the other side of the hill, staying out of sight and trying to keep from laughing too loudly.

It didn't take long before the sergeant came running out of the latrine with his pants around his ankles – hollering at the top of his lungs.

​
... the only phrase he invoked to summon Dad and his buddy.

What happened? Dad and Abby had poured turpentine on the toilet paper.

Later that afternoon, Dad and Abby – toothbrushes in hand – were scrubbing the concrete pavement in front of the barracks.

The behavior of those young soldiers didn't exactly meet the standards of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).

Likewise, the behavior of executives and employees often falls short of acceptable behavior in the workplace.

Too often, gossip, rumors, harassment and other destructive behavior are allowed to fester because no one has made clear what behavior is expected — and what won't be tolerated.

Over the next few weeks, we'll look at how a clear Code of Conduct can help restore civility and respect across an organization — and why that commitment has to begin at the top.

Ultimately, standards of conduct aren't about rules for the sake of rules – and they're not hundreds of pages buried in an Employee Manual.

They're about making clear what kind of behavior we expect from each other — and what we're simply not willing to tolerate.