Transformational Leaders Have Character

The truth is anyone can lead people; however, few people can be leaders.  What makes leadership hard for most people is that they don’t have character, or a character that is worth following.  These people, until they find theirs and lead with it, will continue to get the same frustrating results.  

Every person has the choice to develop their character and yesterday’s lack of judgment does not necessarily equate to today’s lack of character.  Without mistakes, we cannot make behavioral corrections. Without character, no leader can influence positive transformational leadership.  

Leaders today are under intense pressure to perform.  With our on-demand culture, they are expected to garner greater returns, inspire their stakeholders, and be able to do anything it takes to succeed.  While we agree that leadership in its purity has not changed over time, what has changed is how we come to measure a leader.

Leadership is a complicated topic that has spurned thousands of books, articles, and seminars, almost since the advent of writing.  For hundreds of years, humans have been detailing the lives of successful people trying to gain a glimpse of something they do that may be transferable to our own lives.  A key reason biographies sell well every year is that people are naturally curious how and why others did what they did and how they did it -readers want to learn about a person's character.

          Character is vague and somewhat nebulous.  In order to better understand what it is, we must understand that character is an aggregate construct.  As an aggregate, it takes features, traits, moral or ethical qualities, etc., and forms the individual, specific nature of a person.  As you can see, we must understand these inputs (and others) in order to truly gauge a person’s character.

An example: When we assassinate the character of person on a personal level when, and as is often the case, the conflict is more behaviorally related to the circumstance and not personal, we ourselves are demonstrating our lack of character.

A simplified and very basic example to be sure, but we hope that you understand the point: sometimes we do not understand the whole of other people and we judge their character based on a single behavior; thus, raising a significant flag to the quality of our own character.  (It is also understood that multiplied behaviors will call character into question.) 

          Think about the above example in your life.  Have you ever judged the whole of someone based on some act?  Has anyone ever judged you based on some act?  Consider this: If you believe you are a person of character, are their objectionable items that others may lay at your feet that would arguably detract from the whole?  For most of us, the resounding answer is ‘Yes, there are many.’  And yet, we still have leaders of high character.  Many transformational leaders often hold what we might call ‘objectionable character’ traits.

We are not posing an apologetic argument that reinforces negative traits can be outweighed by good deeds or better traits.  Rather, we are posing the idea that all of us are not exempt from making mistakes, sometimes big mistakes, and often times repeating the same mistakes.  The ability to err is what makes us human.  The ability to grow from our mistakes is what transforms us into leaders. 

          Consider the macro-lens, who does transformational leadership matter to?  You?  The other person?  We will argue, both of you.  And in an age where leadership is under constant pressure, we need to develop stronger ‘servant-leaders.’  For those of you who believe this reads like an absurd proposition – that we should humble ourselves, be of service to all people, and follow a path of honest reflection – we will argue that leadership today is deficient in its character because of a lack of the above.

It is our undeniable experience that leaders who follow the servant-leader model are happier, more successful leaders, and more well-rounded people. Following this path will encourage a hunger for deeper and deeper transformation inside, so that it's not just your outside deeds that are superficially correct. You will discover a passion and increasing desire to be changed from deep within.

While this is not a religious or spiritual exercise, it is also not necessarily the path to success; rather, this is the path to transformation.  It is the path of becoming leader of character.

Follow-up Action Item

          Consider your actions as a leader.  Are you a person of character?  Are you a leader of character?  Review your daily inputs.  Look at how you think about others and how you act towards others.  Take this information and see how you can improve the lives of those around you through positive character transformation.  Be the leader you are designed to be.  Be the leader those around you need you to be.

Takeaway

When you experience transformation like this, you find that you will become an entirely different sort of leader.  The light of character that spills out of you will illuminate those around you and change their lives.  It is not a leadership of obedience, but one of service.  It is not the character of weakness, it is the character of power.

Delivering Your Best