Developing Leadership Character

If you are aspiring to be a leader here is how culturebydesigncoaching can help you. In assessing your future leadership aspiration your coach will ask you to reflect on two key questions before you begin coaching.

1. Do you have the commitment to be a leader? Are you prepared to do the hard work of leadership, engage with others in fulfilling the organizational mission, achieve the vision and deliver on the goals?

2. Do they have the character to be a good leader and strive to be an even better one? Do they have the values, traits and virtues that others will use to determine if they are good leaders?

Defining Character

There is no consensus on a definition of character. In fact there seems to be as many definitions as there are scholars whose research and writing focus on character. But we can broadly say character is focussed on personality traits, values and virtues.

Traits

Traits are defined as habitual patterns of thought, behavior and emotion that are considered to be relatively stable in individuals across situations and over time. Traits are not fixed. For example, introverts may be able to learn how to behave in a less introverted way, while extroverts may learn how to control and moderate their extroverted behaviors when situations require it.

There are, literally, hundreds of personality traits from A (ambition) to Z (zealousness) that have been described in the psychology literature. However, through statistical techniques such as factor analysis, five broad domains, or dimensions, of personality have emerged, and are now widely used in various forms in employee selection and assessment. The “Big-Five” traits are:

• Conscientiousness

• Openness to experience

• Extroversion

• Agreeableness, and

• Neuroticism

These five traits feature prominently in tests or inventories. Although the Big Five dominate the personality literature, there are various other traits that warrant consideration and measurement, such as self-confidence, ambition, perfectionism, dominance, rigidity, persistence and impulsivity.

Traits, of course, also evolve through life experiences and deliberate developmental exercises such as coaching.

Values

Values are beliefs that people have about what is important or worthwhile to them. Values influence behavior because people seek more of what they value. If they can get more net value by behaving in certain ways, they will. Values therefore can be seen as the guideposts for behavior. Some people value their autonomy very highly, some value social interaction, some value the opportunity to be creative, some value work-life balance, and so on. Values may change with life stages and according to the extent to which a particular value has already been realized.

Virtues

From the time of the ancient Greeks, philosophers have defined certain clusters of traits, values and behaviors as “good,” and referred to them as virtues. Virtues are like behavioral habits – something that is exhibited fairly consistently. For example, Aristotle wrote that: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

Aristotle identified and defined twelve virtues: Courage, Temperance, Generosity, Magnificence, Magnanimity, Right ambition, Good temper, Friendliness, Truthfulness, Wit, and Justice. The twelfth virtue is Practical Wisdom, which is necessary to live the “good life” and thus achieve happiness or well being.

Consider the virtue of Courage. Traits such as openness to experience, self-confidence and persistence contribute to individuals acting in distinctive ways – for example, putting themselves on the line and acting in a courageous fashion. Having values such as integrity, treating individuals with respect and achievement predisposes individuals to demonstrate courageous behavior. Furthermore, a person with integrity tends to act in a different way than a person who lacks integrity, even if both individuals find themselves in the same situation.

Are you ready to begin your leadership journey?

Engaging in leadership coaching is a way to learn to lead and develop or strengthen character. It is a journey that enables individuals to bring the best of themselves to support and enable others, ensure that the organizations they work with perform at the highest level, and in doing so, contribute to the society in which they operate.