Lately, there has been a lot of very important discussion about leadership character. What is it? How important is it? Can it be developed?
Leadership character is competence balanced with authentic decency. You can be competent from a skill point of view, but if you are unable to build a team or collaborate with others — you aren’t effective. You can be very nice and loved by all people, but if you are unable to create clarity, hold people accountable, or help others improve — again, you aren’t effective.
The content of your character is your choice — and yes, leadership character can be developed. People of poor character know what is expected, and could behave reasonably, but choose not to. Day by day, what you choose, what you think and what you do is who you become [Heraclitus, ancient Greek philosopher].
Demonstrating leadership character means that you choose to:
Behave in alignment with your intention — your beliefs, values and goals.
Use discipline to manage your thoughts and feelings in order to stay aligned with your intention.
Make time and effort to develop the skills to communicate competently — and different skills are required for this virtual workplace.
Monitor your behaviour to ensure you demonstrate humility and compassion for others.
Take responsibility for clarifying performance expectations.
Leaders with character also demonstrate the courage to hold others accountable — to do what is required (i.e., levy consequences) when people choose to not meet clear, reasonable expectations. It is one side of the coin to clarify expectations; the more difficult task is holding yourself and others responsible to keep promises, follow procedures, and do their work.
Three character/accountability questions for you – and perhaps to ask your team as well:
1: Do you believe that in your organization people are held accountable to do the job for which they are paid?
2: What is the consequence if they don’t do the job?
3: What is the barrier to holding people accountable?
Listen to the Centre for Character Leadership team talk about how character is leveraged in their work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOPv0bSNmNo&feature=youtu.be
You may also find Chrystia Freeland’s comments (in her fireside chat with the Ivey Ian O. Ihnatowycz Institute) on the guiding principles of leader character, to be informative as well as topical.
Join us for Building Character Culture Conversations
Our monthly Building Character Culture Conversations are continuing and the next one is scheduled for October 22nd at 1:00 p.m. The topic is How do we hold people accountable for good character?
If you would like to join us, kindly send an email to info@centreforcharacterleadership.com and the Zoom information will be sent to you. These Conversations are about learning from each other and supporting each other.
Sincerely,
Kathleen Redmond MA, MCC
kr@centreforcharacterleadership.com
905.478.7962
Interactive Online Learning Program: Leading with Authenticity, Character, and Integrity
Facilitated by Kathleen Redmond, MA, MCC
Our Interactive Online Learning Program continues with Course #2: The COACH Approach on October 27th.
Visit our Coaching page to learn more. Each course is limited to 9 participants — sign up now to join us for a truly collaborative online experience!
To learn more email us at : info@centreforcharacterleadership.com
