Keep Score on Yourself with Benjamin Franklin’s 13 Virtues
Introduction
I am a work in progress. After more than 30 years of coaching CEOs and business owners, I still have habits I’m working on. Some of them go back a long way.
Earlier in my career, I let small issues get under my skin. A missed detail or a careless comment could throw off my whole day. It also pulled my attention away from the places where I could have had a much bigger impact.
I’ve also struggled with focus. I get distracted easily, and I tend to take on too much at once. And for years, my schedule was an albatross around my neck. I was so proud of being flexible and adaptable that my calendar ended up running me.
I’ve made real progress on all three, mostly as I’ve gotten older and more intentional about it. But none of that progress happened by accident, and none of those habits is completely behind me.
I’m not perfect. Neither is any leader I’ve ever worked with, and neither are you. Most of us know we have a few habits that get in our way. We measure almost everything in our businesses, including revenue, margin, backlog, and turnover. Yet we rarely bring the same discipline to our own behavior. Without some way to track those habits, it’s easy to assume we’re making more progress than we are.
Benjamin Franklin wrestled with this almost three hundred years ago. His approach to self-improvement offers a useful lesson for leaders today: pay attention to your behavior, write down what you see, and work on it consistently.
Why Good Intentions Do Not Change Leadership Habits
As a young printer in Philadelphia, Franklin decided he would simply stop doing wrong. He called it “the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection.” He knew right from wrong, so why couldn’t he just do the right thing every time?
It didn’t work. Every time he focused on one fault, another one slipped through. His old habits won whenever he wasn’t paying attention.
That sounds obvious, but think about how most of us try to improve. We read a good book or attend a strong program. We leave with real insight and good intentions. Six weeks later, not much has changed. The problem usually isn’t knowledge. It’s habit.
Franklin reached the same conclusion. So he stopped relying on willpower and built a system.
Benjamin Franklin’s 13 Virtues for Leaders Today
Franklin chose thirteen virtues and wrote a short rule for each one. He kept the rules specific so he would know exactly when he had fallen short. He also put them in a deliberate order, starting with the ones that would make the others easier.
I’ll admit something before you read them. I recognize more than a few of my own struggles in this list. Some came up early in my career and some came later. A few still come up. I suspect you’ll recognize yourself in more than one, too.
Here they are in plain language, with what I think each one means for a leader today.
1. Temperance. Don’t eat or drink to the point that it dulls you. Franklin’s real concern was a clear head. For a leader, that covers anything that clouds your judgment, including running for weeks on too little sleep.
2. Silence. Say only what helps someone, and skip the idle chatter. Franklin admitted he joked and punned too much to win over a room. Most leaders talk too much in meetings. When the boss speaks first, the discussion often ends right there.
3. Order. Keep a place for everything and a set time for each part of your business. I mentioned my schedule problem. What finally fixed it wasn’t more willpower. Many years ago I brought in an assistant. Now my days run more cleanly and smoothly, and I control my time instead of my time controlling me. Sometimes the answer to a weak spot is better structure and the right help.
4. Resolution. Decide what you ought to do, then do it without fail. Franklin believed this virtue held the rest in place. For me, resolution has meant learning to focus. I’ve had to do first things first and get the most important work done before moving on to everything else. Every leader who has started ten initiatives and finished three knows what I mean.
5. Frugality. Spend only on what does real good, and waste nothing. Franklin was trying to get out of debt. For a leader, this goes beyond money. Don’t waste resources, people’s time, or your own attention.
6. Industry. Don’t waste time, and cut out unnecessary activity. Industry isn’t busyness. It means clearing away what doesn’t matter so your effort goes to what does.
7. Sincerity. Use no deception that hurts anyone. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Spin and hidden agendas destroy trust faster than almost anything a leader can do.
8. Justice. Don’t harm people, and don’t hold back what you owe them. Franklin counted what you fail to do, not just what you do. A leader who never mistreats anyone but also never gives earned recognition or honest feedback is still falling short.
9. Moderation. Avoid extremes. Don’t overreact to a bad quarter or a sharp email, and don’t hold a grudge as long as you think you’re entitled to.
10. Cleanliness. Keep yourself and your surroundings clean. It sounds dated, but your appearance, your office, and your shop floor say something about your standards before you say a word.
11. Tranquility. Don’t let small things, or the ordinary accidents of life, knock you off balance. This was my big one early in my career. What I learned is that your team watches how you react to small problems. If you stay steady on the little things, they’ll trust you on the big ones.
12. Chastity. Franklin wrote plainly about sexual conduct. His rule was never to let it harm your health or anyone’s peace or reputation. For leaders today, the lesson is simple: your private conduct is never entirely private.
13. Humility. Franklin’s rule was the shortest on the list: “Imitate Jesus and Socrates.” It was also the last one he added, and the story behind it is the best part.
Before you read on, take a minute with these questions:
Which of these thirteen comes most naturally to you?
Which one would your team say you struggle with?
Which one, if you improved it, would make the biggest difference in your leadership this year?
How Franklin Tracked His Progress
Once Franklin had his list, he made a small book. Each page had a column for every day of the week and a row for every virtue. Every evening he reviewed his day and put a dot next to every slip. He gave one virtue his full attention each week, kept tracking the others, and then moved on to the next. A full cycle took thirteen weeks, so he could go through it four times a year.
Three parts of his experience stand out to me.
He was worse than he thought. He admitted he was surprised to find himself “so much fuller of faults than I had imagined.” Over time, though, the dots got fewer. Most of us carry a more flattering picture of our leadership than our people do.
He needed someone else to see what he couldn’t. His first list had only twelve virtues. Then a friend told him that people found him proud and overbearing in conversation, and gave him specific examples. Franklin added humility. He was candid about the results. He said he never fully acquired the virtue itself, but he got much better at practicing it. He stopped contradicting people and stopped stating his opinions as settled fact. I think that’s how most of us grow. We change the behavior first, and the behavior slowly changes us.
He never finished. Like me, Franklin struggled most with order. He was running a print shop, and customers showed up whenever they pleased. Eventually business and travel crowded out his little book entirely, though he kept it with him for the rest of his life. Looking back in his late seventies, he said he never reached perfection, but the effort made him “a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been.”
One of the most accomplished people in American history never got his list right. That should give the rest of us some comfort.
What Research Says About Tracking Progress
There is research behind the value of keeping score. In a 2016 review of 138 studies involving 19,951 participants, Benjamin Harkin and his colleagues found that interventions encouraging people to monitor progress improved goal attainment. The benefits were greater when progress was physically recorded and when outcomes were reported or made public.
That research does not establish that Franklin’s exact method will make you a better CEO. My takeaway is more practical: writing down your behavior gives you something concrete to review. You can see whether your actions are catching up with your intentions.
A Practical 13 Week Leadership Development Plan
You don’t need to begin with all thirteen of Franklin’s virtues. Start with the few behaviors that matter most for your leadership right now, and give yourself thirteen weeks to work on them. This is an adaptation of his approach, with a smaller list and time to revisit your biggest challenges.
1. Pick four to six behaviors. Make them specific. “Be more patient” is too vague. “Don’t let small problems change my tone with the team” is something you can track.
Do this: Write your list on one index card.
2. Ask someone to tell you the truth. Franklin’s most important addition came from a friend who was willing to be honest with him.
Do this: Ask a peer, a direct report, or someone in your advisory group, “What’s one thing I do that gets in the way of my leadership?” Listen, and don’t defend yourself.
3. Review every evening. Take two minutes at the end of each day and mark any slips. Make a simple weekly grid with your behaviors down the left side and the days across the top. Add a brief note when it helps you understand what triggered a lapse. If you miss a day, resume the next evening.
Do this: Set a reminder for the same time every night.
4. Focus on one behavior each week. Keep tracking the others, but give one your full attention. Once you’ve worked through your list, repeat the cycle. Use the final week to review what improved, where you still struggle, and what you want to carry into the next quarter.
Do this: Write this week’s focus at the top of your scorecard. If you choose four behaviors, cycle through them three times over twelve weeks, then review your progress in week thirteen.
5. Get help where you need it. Sometimes the fix is structure, not willpower. For me, it was bringing in an assistant.
Do this: For your weakest area, ask whether a person, a system, or a routine could carry part of the load.
6. Share your progress. Tracking works better when someone else can see it.
Do this: Send your list and a monthly update to one person you trust.
Becoming a Better Leader Takes Continued Practice
I try to revisit my own set of values on a regular basis. I don’t always like what I find, but I’m glad I look. Some of the habits that held me back early in my career don’t have the same grip on me today. Others I’m still working on.
That’s the point. Franklin never reached perfection, and neither will you or I. Nobody does. The goal is to know where you’re falling short, work on it on purpose, and be a little better next quarter than you were this one.
We’re all works in progress. Pick one behavior you know needs attention and start keeping score this week. Thirteen weeks from now, you’ll have a much clearer picture of what you’re doing to become a better leader.