A leader with Character
Wednesday, September 21st, 2005How a leader deals with circumstances of life tells you many things about his character. Crisis doesn’t necessarily make character, but certainly does reveal it. Adversity is a crossroads that makes a person choose one of two paths: character or compromise. Everytime he chooses character, he becomes stronger, even if that choice brings negative consequences.
What must every person know about character?
1. Character Is More Than TALK
Anyone can say that he has integrity, but action is the real indicator of character. You character determines who you are. Who you are determines what you see. What you see determines what you do. That’s why you cannot separate a leader’s character from his actions. If a leader’s actions and intentions are continually working against each other, then look to his character to find out why.
2. Talent is a Gift, but Character is a Choice
We have no control over a lot of things in life. We don’t get to choose our parents. We don’t select the location or circumstances of our birth and upbringing. We don’t get to pick our talents or IQ. But we do choose our character. In fact, we create it everytime we make choices - to cop out or dig out of a hard situation, to bend the truth or stand under the weight of it, to take the easy money or pay the price. As you live your life and make choices today, you are continuing to create your character.
3. Character brings lasting success with people
True leadership always involve other people. As the leadership proverb says, if you think you’re leading and no one is following you, then you’re only taking a walk. Followers do not trust leaders whose character they know to be flawed, and they will not continue following them.
4. Leaders cannot rise above the limitations of their Character
Have you ever seen highly talented people suddenly fall apart when they achieveda certain level of success? The key to that phenomenon is character. People who achieve great heights but lack the bedrock character to sustain them through the stress are headed for disaster.
IF YOU THINK THAT YOU’RE LACK IN CHARACTER.. Do the following:
- Search for the cracks
Spend some time looking at the major areas of your life, and identify anywhere you might have cut corners, compromised, or let people down. Write down every instance you can recall from the past two months.
- Look for patterns
Examine the responses that you just wrote down. Is there a particular area where you have a weakness, or do you have a type of problem that keeps surfacing? Detectable patterns will help you diagnose character issues.
- Face the Music
The beginning of character repair comes when you face you flaws, apologize, and deal with people to whom you need to apologize for your actions, then follow through with sincere apologies.
- Rebuild
It’s one thing to face up to your past actions. It’s another to build a new future. Now that you’ve identified any areas of weakness, create a plan that will prevent you from making the same mistakes again.
If you think that all of these are not important for you, YOU ARE TOTALLY WRONG!!! Remember CHARACTER is something that you practice every second in your life. You need to change to improve yourself. No one can do it for you. You need to work it out on your own. ONE TEAM ONE VISON l l l
