Leadership & Character – Trust
I have recently been doing some reading on the process people undergo in making decisions. I am fascinated by the number of factors that influence decisions and the impact of these factors. As one would expect, logic and reasoning (assessing the pros and cons), is an important element in the decision making process. What I found intriguing is that people can make decisions that – when objectively analyzed based on the data – are decisions that are difficult to rationalize. Factors such as emotion, pre-existing perceptions and trust play a large role in the decisions we make. Leaders must be aware of these factors and their impact on decisions. In this blog post, I am going to focus on the role of trust in decision making. Read more
Identifying the traits, values and virtues that are present is a person of good character is a pursuit that has been going on for centuries. Aristotle identified twelve virtues that are present in someone of good character. As you might expect, the virtues are not mutually exclusive and can provide great insights to how good character impacts business leadership. For example, Aristotle included courage, practical wisdom and right ambition in his list of virtues. Many studies of leadership traits identify perseverance as an important trait that successful leaders possess. At the heart of perseverance is the concept of persistence. This is where character comes into play.
Does your organization hire leaders who can manage with their head, heart and good character principles? When I was in university attending business school learning about how to make decisions and be an effective leader, we were taught the importance of assembling all of the relevant data, analyzing the data and then using logical reasoning to come up with the best plan of action. Much of what we learned was about how to use our head – or our cognitive intelligence (IQ) – to make good decisions. 
Change is an everyday occurrence. You’ll find well-rounded leaders embracing change and having the ability to recognize the opportunities that change can bring and to “Realign Rigorously”. In order to do this, the leader needs to become a pro at innovation. And, that means never start with “it can’t be done.” What is needed, is the ability to create new mindsets, break the mold, think outside of the box and innovate. ‘Success comes in cans’ is a great play on words that contains profound truth.
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Have you ever had one of those days where you know you worked really hard and didn’t feel like you achieved anything? It’s often referred to as spinning your wheels. This often happens because we over-commit and fail to make good choices or have difficult conversations in order to maintain balance in our schedule and in our lives.
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I remember first reading the quote: “adversity builds character”. I thought this was a valuable insight. However, I later came across a revised version of this quote which stated: “Adversity doesn’t just build character, Adversity reveals character”. The distinction really caught my attention. I believe that there is a great truth here. The essence of a leader’s character is not the situations they have been through – it is how they act when challenged by current situations.
Most leaders have a high level of self-awareness and a positive self-concept. They are confident in what they believe in. When the time comes to take action, great leaders know what to do and have the confidence to do it. “He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.” ― Lao Tzu
One of the virtues of great leaders is the ability to focus on solutions and push the negatives aside. Henry Ford has been credited as saying: “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t — you’re right”.
