There are many ways to measure the degree to which a leader demonstrates positive character. In his book entitled “Return on Character”, Fred Kiel measures the character of leaders based on four universally accepted moral principles:
Let’s explore the importance of responsibility to character-based leadership. In his book, Kiel connects the principle of responsibility to two important behaviours: Read more
The focus of today’s blog is the importance of caring to character-based leadership. There is an old quote by Theodore Roosevelt “Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.” It is widely accepted that business knowledge is a very important attribute of successful leaders. However, a leader’s business knowledge is only valuable if the leader is able to effectively communicate it so that it will influence the actions of others.
To shine a light on the impact that a caring approach can have on the power of a leader, I’d like to share the story of the leadership and ownership struggles at Market Basket, a grocery retail chain with more than 70 stores located in the eastern United States. As CEO of Market Basket, Arthur T. Demoulas had developed a strong reputation for caring; earned by always making time for employees. Read more
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
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. Read more
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.
As individuals we all demonstrate leadership effectiveness in how we act. The question is: how do leaders nurture positive character attributes to prepare for moments when our character will be tested? The answer lies in the actions we take and the commitments we keep each and every day. As we continually act with good character, it becomes a habit. When the moment of truth comes to test our mettle, our good habits will reveal our good character.
This blog is the third in a series of blogs focusing on the importance of character and how it impacts leaders and leadership. Following on the previous blog “What is Character in Business Leadership“, In this blog we’ll seek to understand a little bit about values and virtues and how we might measure them. Read more
