In Virtuous Leadership, author Alex Havard explains that a leader needs strong character. He notes that everyone is born with a temperament. While that temperament typically contains good qualities, it also typically includes weaknesses -- things such as a tendency to become angry too quickly, or a tendency to exaggerate, or to give up too quickly.
People develop character by trying to correct those weaknesses with virtues. A virtue is a habit of doing good. So if you have a temperament pre-disposed to laziness, you might try to overcome that with the virtue of hard work. Temperament is untrained character. A person has to work to develop character.
Before you can lead anyone else, you have to be able to lead yourself, and the process of correcting weaknesses in your temperament with virtues to build character is an example of leading yourself. That's why Havard says a real leader needs character.
Poor Kenneth Lay. He had a big time job as the head of Enron for 17 years, but he apparently lacked the will to correct the weaknesses in his temperament. The inordinant value he placed on being liked apparently prevented him from confronting the hard decisions that leaders have to make. In the "Smartest Guys in the Room," the authors argue that his unwillingness to face conflict contributed to Enron's downfall.
I am not writing this to pick on Mr. Lay, who has since passed away, but to note that no matter what position within a company you hold, you may have to work to develop your own character. A title might give a person authority, but it does not make him a leader. People are more likely to follow someone with strong character than someone with an impressive title.
Comments