A line attributed to the Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant appears on quotation sites: “If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes really good, then you did it. That’s all it takes to get people to win football games for you.”
Quotation sites give no source or date for it.
The West Point honor code reads: “A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.” The last clause was added formally only in 1970.
In 1976 more than 800 cadets took a take-home engineering exam, and a cheating scandal followed. A commission led by Frank Borman found that “many individuals are reluctant to place duty to community over loyalty to friends.” In a 1974 survey, 73 percent of cadets had said they would not report a good friend.
In his 2014 book Leaders Eat Last, Simon Sinek tells of a Marine Corps general who told him: “Officers eat last.” Sinek watched as the most junior Marines ate first while the most senior Marines took their place at the back of the line.
In Good to Great (2001) Jim Collins describes the best leaders he studied with an image. When things go well, they look out the window to credit others. When things go badly, they look in the mirror to take responsibility.
In a study reported in January 2007, Wayne Hochwarter of Florida State University surveyed more than 700 workers about their supervisors. 37% said their boss failed to give credit when due. 23% said the boss blamed others to cover up mistakes or to minimize embarrassment. 27% said the boss made negative comments about them to other employees or managers.
In A Few Good Men (1992), written by Aaron Sorkin, two Marines are court-martialed for the death of a fellow Marine named Willy. They had carried out a “code red” ordered by their officers. Their officers denied giving the order.
The two are cleared of murder but convicted of conduct unbecoming. Lance Corporal Dawson understands at the end. “We were supposed to fight for people who couldn’t fight for themselves. We were supposed to fight for Willy.”
In 2016 it became public that Wells Fargo employees had opened about 1.5 million unauthorized bank accounts and 565,000 credit cards in customers’ names. The bank paid a $185 million settlement and fired 5,300 employees.
On September 20 Senator Elizabeth Warren confronted CEO John Stumpf at a Senate hearing. “Instead, your definition of ‘accountable’ is to push the blame to your low-level employees.” She called it “gutless leadership.”
Thrown under the bus. Merriam-Webster defines it as “to criticize, blame, or punish (someone in a vulnerable position) especially in order to avoid blame or gain an advantage.” It became enormously popular during the 2008 presidential campaign, when the linguist Geoff Nunberg, on NPR, counted it in more than 400 campaign stories in six months.
Got your six. Service members say it to tell each other that their rear is covered. Picture an analog clock with you at the center, facing 12. Six is directly behind you.
Top Gun was the highest-grossing film of 1986. Early on, the instructor Jester rebukes Maverick: “You never, never leave your wingman.” In combat at the end, Maverick refuses to break off: “I’m not leaving my wingman.”
Afterward his rival Iceman, who had called his flying dangerous, tells him: “You can be my wingman anytime.”
The U.S. Army’s Soldier’s Creed was approved in its current form in 2003. Its Warrior Ethos reads: “I will always place the mission first. I will never accept defeat. I will never quit. I will never leave a fallen comrade.”
The Ranger Creed, written in 1974, has an earlier version: “I will never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy …”