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

What Defines A Habit?

We all have habits.  Those things we do without fail.  Some of our habits are healthy, like brushing your teeth or bathing regularly.  Other habits, such as smoking, are not.  We each have numerous habits we engage in whether we recognize the mechanics of the performance of the action or not.  As a result, our habits essentially define the person we are.

There are countless books and articles released for reading and study every year articulating this topic.  We all know that bad habits are ‘bad’ for us and that good habits are ‘good’ for us.  If this is true that we know this, the question begs: why so many publications on the subject?

The truth, while from a biological and neurological perspective may be more difficult to attend to here, is that we make conscious choices to hold on to habits that are comfortable to us and provide a predetermined reward that we seek.

Take for instance, driving your car.  Beginning with locating your keys and walking to your car (there may be minor alterations that we may make from day to day) but this holds all the same.  We arrive at the car, unlocking it, opening the door, placing our bag in the seat, arranging our coffee cup, and adjusting ourselves into the seat.  At this point we will start the car and possibly move through some mechanical items such as adjusting the temperature and radio.  Putting the car in drive, or reverse, occurs in roughly the same pattern every time we drive our cars.  Admittedly there are dozens of more small ‘things’ we may or may not do when getting into our cars, but the point here is that we all have a routine for starting our cars.  This routine is mechanical and occurs on subconscious level.  This routine was built out of habit.

This is basic example to be sure, but is one that most of us can relate to performing on a regular basis.  Look back at your day and see what habits you have formed that you execute on every day.  While there is no particular pattern for quickly changing a habit, a good place to start is to understand how habits work.  Referring to Charles Duhigg’s How Habits Work, The Power of Habit, we’ll look at Mr. Duhigg’s habit framework model.

Identify The Routine

Experiment With Rewards

Isolate The Cue

Have A Plan

Identify the Routine

          At the core of every habit there is a loop that consists of three parts: a cue, a routine, and a reward.  When looking at changing our behavioral patterns we have to first determine and define this habit loop.  The cue is this part of the action that precipitates our desire/need for the habit.  The routine is that action we take that engages the habit from beginning to end. The reward is the emotional/psychological satisfaction we derive from the completion of this habit.

          Identifying the cue is a little tricky, but nonetheless important when working towards changing a habit.  The routine is the easy part to identify as this is generally defined as the habit itself.  Finally, the reward needs to be isolated in order to understand why we are engaging in the habit.

          When looking at the routine, it may be useful to take notes on various observations such as time of day, mood, etc.  These notes may be of use when attempting to define the rewards.

Experiment With Rewards

          Rewards are the results of our behaviors and understanding what the reward is to a specific habit will help us in determining a plan for changing the habit.  In this phase, when you have a habit you are looking to change Duhigg suggests experimenting with various rewards in order to determine what result is driving the routine. 

Since the result is the part of the habit we are looking to amend, pay attention to the various drivers and experimental results.  When we are redefining habits we must understand the basis behind the actions that lead to the reward.  Often, we find that habits are seeking to isolate desired results.  When we understand what we are seeking, redefining the habit becomes much clearer.

Isolate the Cue

          We have a variety of stimuli that affect our habits.  In getting to the cue of a specific habit we are looking to redefine we must isolate as nearly as possible the pattern of behaviors that lead up to the routine.

          Studies have shown that habitual cues fit into one of the following five categories: location, time, emotional state, other people, and immediately preceding the action.  Location is a clear cue as we are more likely, for example, to engage in similar morning routines from the comfort of our homes, but that this same routine with same or similar inputs is disrupted when you are engaging in a morning routine from a different location such as a hotel room.  Timing is important as this tells us when, during the day, we are likely to execute the habit.  While emotional state is a complicated fact set, attempt to note what your general mood is around the time of the habit.  Other people have a significant impact on our habits.  In the above example, if you and your significant other awake in the morning and execute a series of steps that define a morning routine or habit, when one or both of you is in a different location, the habit may be disrupted in its form, but still occurs (you did get dressed this morning regardless of your location).  Finally, the events immediately preceding the action are qualified examples of how our minds process order.  If, for example, you leave work every day and meet friends for a drink at a regular establishment, the event that immediately precedes this habit is the ending of the workday.

          In reading Duhigg, he reminds us to make good notations on the above in order to isolate the cues that precipitate the habit.  Give it a shot.  List the five cues above and write them down every day for a few days before the habit is executed, the results will probably surprise you!

Have a Plan

          Once the habit loop is determined and you’ve identified the reward driving the behavior, the cue triggering it, and the routine itself, you can begin the process of altering the habit as you desire.  Remember, habits are often ingrained and are occurring on a subconscious level.  Our minds recognize the cue and initiate the routine in order to receive the reward!

          Once you recognize the cues for the routine start changing the reward patterns.  Instead of grabbing the junk food during the lull of the afternoon, have some healthy alternative foods within reach.  When the cue for boredom and snacking initiate, you will have an option.  If this doesn’t work, rewire the reward again.  Keep working at it until you determine the right reward for the habit you are changing.

          If you are looking to change your behaviors completely, the above remains the same.  In the above example, you were looking to break the habit of meeting for drink after work.  A healthy alternative might be to go to the gym immediately after work.  While this is an option, it is certainly not the only one.  Only you can develop the plan for yourself.

Follow-up Action Item

           Isolate your cues and routines.  Then look at the rewards you are seeking.  Changing a habit is not difficult, but can be complicated if we don’t make the material changes needed in order to redefine the behavior.  Also, and while this is not an endorsement, read Charles Duhigg’s How Habits Work, The Power of Habit.  You can also probably find an audio version.  In fact, when changing a behavior spend that time reading this book (or one similar)!

Takeaway

          Habits are not superficial; rather, they are behavior constructs that can be changed with different behavioral inputs.  If you want to change something, you can do it.

Delivering Your Best