What is Character?

“Character isn’t a superficial style. The word comes from the ancient Greek verb meaning “to engrave” and its related noun meaning “mark” or ‘distinctive quality.’ Character is who we essentially are. I also believe, however, that our character is continuously evolving. Unlike some of the Freudians, I don’t think character is fixed at age six. I think we continue to grow and to develop. The corollary of this is that the process of becoming a leader, to me, is much the same process as becoming an integrated human being. I see a real connection between what it takes to be a leader and the process of character growth……. one way to define leadership is as character in action.”


Vision

“Leaders create a vision with meaning – one with significance, one which puts the players at the center of things rather than at the periphery. If organizations have a vision that is meaningful to people, nothing will stop them from being successful. Not just any old vision will do, however; it must be a shared vision with meaning and significance…. A vision can be shared only if it has meaning for the people involved in it….. To communicate a vision, you need more than words, speeches, memos and laminated plaques. You need to live a vision, day in, day out — embodying it and empowering every other person to execute that vision in everything he or she does, anchoring it in realities so that it becomes a template for decision making. Actions do speak louder than words.”

Purpose

“I can’t exaggerate the significance of a strong determination to achieve a goal — a conviction, a passion, even a skewed distortion of reality that focuses on a particular point of view. And the leader has to express that determination, or purpose, in various ways….. Michael Eisner once told me that Disney didn’t have a ‘vision statement,’ but rather a strong ‘point of view’ about the Disney culture. When making big decisions, Eisner says, ‘the strongest point of view almost always wins the argument.’”

Trust

“Real leaders, and people of strong character, generate and sustain trust. I can’t overemphasize the importance of encouraging openness, even dissent…. Leaders must be candid in their communications and show that they care. They have to be seen to be trustworthy. Most communication has to be done eyeball to eyeball, rather than in newsletters, on videos, or via satellite. One of the best ways to build trust is by deep listening. People’s feeling that they’re being heard is the most powerful dynamic of human interaction. Listening doesn’t mean agreeing, but it does mean having the empathic reach to understand another…… To trust others, to have confidence in them, people of course also need to see evidence of competence……. Yet another indispensable aspect of character, and leadership, is constancy……. Before they can trust a leader, followers have to know what to expect. So sometimes leaders have to put off their grand ideas or glorious opportunities until they have had a chance to convince their allies of the ideas’ value. In business, as in politics, the effectiveness of a decision is the quality of the decision multiplied by the acceptance of it….. What all these behaviors and skills surrounding trust add up to is integrity, and that means character.”

Action

“What employees want most from their leaders is direction and meaning, trust and hope. Every good leader I have spoken with has had a willful determination to achieve a set of goals, a set of convictions, about what he or she wanted the organization to achieve. Every leader had a purpose. Remember what hockey great Wayne Gretzky says, ‘It’s not where the puck is that counts. It’s where the puck will be.’ Character counts because, in the leader, character is having the vision to see things not just the way they are but the way they should be — and doing something to make them that way…… Leaders have a bias toward action. They have the capacity to convert purpose and vision into action. It just isn’t enough to have the great vision people can trust. It has to be manifest in some external products and results. Most leaders are pragmatic dreamers or practical idealists (even though those descriptions may seem like oxymorons). They step up and take their shots every day, perhaps knowing that ‘you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take,’ to borrow another line from ice-rink philosopher Gretsky…… ‘Strike hard and try everything,’ wrote Henry James. You’re never going to get anywhere unless you risk and try and then learn from each experience. Leaders have to play even when it means making mistakes. And they have to learn from those mistakes….. Companies are the direct reflection of their leaders. All the leaders I know have a strongly defined sense of purpose. And when you have an organization where the people are aligned behind a clearly defined vision or purpose, you get a powerful organization. Effective leaders are all about creative collaboration, about creating a shared sense of purpose. People need meaningful purpose. That’s why we live. With a shared purpose you can achieve anything. And that’s why a central task for the leader is the development of other leaders, creating conditions that enhance the ability of all employees to make decisions and create change. The leader must actively help his or her followers to reach their full leadership potential. As Max De Pree once put it: ‘The signs of outstanding leadership appear primarily among the followers.’”
How do you go about becoming a good leader?
“Figure out what you’re good at. Hire only good people who care, and treat them the way you want to be treated. Identify your one or two key objectives or directions and ask your coworkers how to get there. Listen hard and get out of their way. Cheer them. Switch from macho to maestro. Count the gains. Start right now”
Highly Recommended Reading..
If you haven’t read any of Warren Bennis’s books I would strongly encourage you to do so. He has authored more than twenty-five books, many of them on the topic of leadership. Some of my personal recommendations are: