When you honor protocol it creates rewards of access and advancement. Protocol is a code of conduct or standard of procedure to access properly higher levels of authority. It is to be taught to proteges for the purpose of communicating importance of people, position, and power. It establishes the necessity of submission to authority to guarantee cohesiveness in government and ultimately protects the institution.

Every level of leadership has a code of conduct for accessing it and remaining in it. Learn it, study it, and apply yourself to honor it till its not just something you do outwardly but you respond from your heart. Attitude creates atmospheres in the room. A husband and wife gets into a heated argument before you stop by to visit, but they put on the fake smile during your visit, however you can feel the tension in the air. Attitude is the unspoken but yet conveyed language in any environment. In other words, if you want to excel up in leadership, then be genuine inside and outside.

Honoring protocol will take you further than intelligence. Your intelligence is an ability but honoring protocol is an attitude. It’s also a choice which requires me to sacrifice my personal ambitions that conflict with the one above me. By doing so I prove to that person I am a team player and not a selfish maverick who can’t be trusted. Ignoring protocol will destroy one’s favor extended to me and will diminish any influence I might have had if I would have honored protocol.

When I honor protocol I can eliminate stagnation and non-movement in my growth of responsibility and influence. It as well will remove embarrassment and unnecessary labels that produce stigmas attached to my name when leadership above me communicate. It’s easier to maintain a good name than rebuild one once it’s been tainted.

A pitfall.

Familiarity breathes the temptation to break protocol. It has a tendency to devalue the person and position. Showing honor demands discipline, effort, and diligence. Government depends and works on protocol to be efficient. A breakdown in protocol creates confusion and a breeding ground for insubordination.

Protocol maintains your position. If an athlete in a game such as baseball, American football, or European football, gets out of position then the team is weakened and mistakes happen. It’s imperative for him to be in his position to give his team the optimum chance at winning. This is the importance of protocol in government and leadership protégés. Usurping another’s position of authority and circumventing protocol will ultimately weaken the structure and remove the effectiveness of the system. Being a team player is more valuable than being a lone maverick. One insures longevity and a positive legacy while the other becomes a shooting star which dies in obscurity. Keeping protocol is that important to one’s own personal life as well as the life  of an organization or government.

What to do?

Assess and learn the expectations of each level before attempting to enter. When I honor protocol, it documents my acknowledgment of the authority and importance of the one and office that is above me. Honoring protocol will get me in the room, but my attitude will keep me there.