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Ideas for Leaders #157

Character - The Unspoken Essence of

Leadership

Key Concept

In assessing leaders at any level in an organization, three questions are

asked:

1. Do they have the competencies to be a leader?

2. Do they have the commitment to be a leader?

3. Do they have the character to be a good leader?

This Idea focuses on leadership character because it is the most difficult to

define, measure, assess and develop. Its aim is to define those dimensions of

leadership character that are most important in today’s business environment

and suggest how character can be developed.

Idea Summary

The idea of character has been lost sight of. One reason could be that the

educational system and organizations are completely competency focused, or

perhaps because character seems an old-fashioned word. However,

character is a vital part of leadership and it cannot be ignored. Character

fundamentally shapes how we engage with the world around us, what we

notice, what we reinforce, who we engage in conversation, what we value,

what we chose to act on, how to decide, etc.

This research on the failures of leadership points to character as a central

theme. However, there is no consensus on a definition of character. This

article will focus on personality traits, values and virtues.

Traits: These are defined as habitual patterns of thought, behaviour and emotion that are

considered to be relatively stable in individuals across situations and over time. Traits are not

fixed, rather they evolve through life experiences e.g. childhood, education, families, etc.

Values: These are beliefs that people have about what is important to them. Values influence

behaviour because people seek more of what they value. Examples of values include

autonomy, transparency, creativity, the importance of work/life balance and so on. Values may

change with life stages. An important sub-set of values consists of those with ethical or social

dimensions, such as honesty, integrity, compassion, fairness, charity and social responsibility.

Such values may be strongly or weakly held and influence behaviour accordingly. Some may

experience value conflicts in certain situations, for example when loyalty conflicts with honesty.

Virtues: Virtues are like behavioural habits – something that is exhibited fairly consistently.

Aristotle identified 12 virtues, for example: Courage, Temperance, Generosity, Magnificence,

etc.

The writers propose that business leaders who focus on the long-term

performance of their organizations must demonstrate 10 virtues plus an over-

riding or über-virtue:

Authors

Seijts, Gerard

Gandz, Jeffrey

Crossan, Mary

Reno, Mark

Institutions

Ivey Business School at Western University

Source

Developing Leaders

Idea Conceived

2013

Idea posted

June 2013

DOI number

Subject

Values

Leadership

Emerging Leaders

Organizational Behaviour

Psychology

1. Humility

2. Integrity

3. Collaboration

4. Justice

5. Courage

6. Temperance

7. Accountability

8. Humanity

9. Transcendence

10. Drive

11. Judgement

The thinking behind this draws heavily on work by Christopher Peterson and

Martin Seligman who identified 6 virtues – Wisdom, Justice, Humanity,

Temperance, Transcendence, and Courage. The writers have added 5 others

that they feel are important in business leaders – Collaboration, Drive,

Humility, Integrity, and Accountability, as well as modifying Wisdom to the

more commonly used Judgement.

Aristotle was clear in stating that virtues become vices in their excess or

deficiency – courage in its excess is recklessness etc. The challenge for

leaders is to deepen or strengthen a virtue through reflection.

Why Character Really Matters!

Character is foundational for effective decision-making. Mistakes are made

because of a leader’s shortcomings in his or her competencies. More often

the root cause is a failing character. Challenging decisions being made by

others but which you feel are wrong requires character. Creating a culture of

constructive dissent so that others may challenge your decisions without fear

of consequences requires character.

Character is not something that you have or do not have – the key is the

depth of development of each facet of character that enables us to lead. No-

one is perfect. For character to find the spotlight it deserves, leaders need to

illuminate it. A renewed focus on character sparks the best in people and fuels

them in their personal journeys to become better leaders.

Business Application

There is much that senior leaders can do to develop leadership character in

others. Simply talking about character and valuing the topic of conversation

stimulates discussion and facilitates individual reflection. When leadership

profiles only address competencies and commitment, they may suggest that

character is not important. People do not usually learn values and virtues by

osmosis. Values need to be addressed explicitly in the organization’s

coaching and mentoring, reinforced through training and development, and

actively used in recruitment, selection and succession management.

Further Reading

“Character: The Essence of Leadership: 10 character virtues of a good

leader. How do you measure up?” Gerard Seijts, Jeffrey Gandz, Mary

Crossan and Mark Reno. Developing Leaders, Issue 10, 2013

Further Relevant Resources

Mary Crossan's profile at Ivey Business School

Jeffrey Gandz's profile at Ivey Business School

Mark Reno's profile at Ivey Business School

Gerard Seijts profile at Ivey Business School

Ivey Business School's profile on IEDP

© Copyright IEDP Ideas for Leaders 2013

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