Character and Leadership Matters

“Character is destiny.”? Heraclitus

Since the birth of our nation almost two hundred and fifty years ago, the American experiment has faced many past inflection points stressing democracy to its core. Thankfully, it has been the vision and character of servant leaders who have guided “the better angels” of the American sprit through them all.

Defining and explaining leadership, as with character, remains elusive. If you were to search leadership books sold on Amazon, the search results would exceed fifty thousand. Those on character, significantly less.

For leadership, scholars have been searching for what President Eisenhower called the mysterious “factor X” within his 1965 Reader’s Digest article expressing his views on what constituted effective leadership. The are numerous definitions, theories, and philosophies assessing leadership from different perspectives to include traits, behaviors, relationships, skills, processes, authorities, motivation; etc. Each partially explains leadership. However, I would opine that character remains central.

For character, historically definitions and descriptions have attempted to explain character through inner qualities, motivations that combine to create the essence of a person. Aristotle understood character to be the result of habits. More recently James Q. Wilson wrote in his 1995 book “On Character,” that for character to become good, a person requires empathy and self-control willingly considering others along with the long-term consequences of their choices. David Brooks wrote in his 2015 book “The Road to Character” that character is a developed set a disciplined habits resulting from the inner struggle between “resume virtues” and “eulogy virtues.” Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wrote that “character is what you do when no one is watching.” The late Senator John McCain wrote in his 2005 book “Character is Destiny,” that character has much to do with hearing “…the voice in your heart, when you face hard decisions in your life, to hear it say to you…I will know. I will Know. I will know.”?

Importantly, when explaining what good, effective leadership is, character does matters. It is character that shapes a leader’s thinking and behaviors directly informing how they achieve results along with the nature of those results, be they self-centered for personal gain or externally oriented seeking to benefit their organization or society through adding value.?

It should come as no surprise that our nation, our democracy is once again at an inflection point. Civility, trust, community connection are all at significant low point. Nationalist tendencies are overcoming patriotism. Political rhetoric has become divisive seeking to exploit fear and nostalgic perceptions of days gone by. Voices are being silenced. Facts have become subjective eliminating any chance for a common reality to exist negatively impacting the chances for forming a common, national narrative of who we are and where we are collectively heading.?

We have been here before, but as President Lincoln proclaimed during his first inaugural address, and as Jon Meacham captures so well in his 2017 book “The Soul of America – The Battle for our Better Angels,” leadership is what has in the past and will now get us through these polarized times. Times such as we now face, demand leaders who will act with courage, not cowering to the emotions of the mob, closing the partisan divide by reminding us of our common ideals, instilling hope through a vision of a better future, and mobilizing collective initiative through purpose.? Importantly, they will also remind and reeducate us that compromise and the art of forming agreements are the lifeblood of democracy. ?Rule of law being its safeguards. Our nation requires character-based leadership to enlighten the perceptual space between “us and them,” “my way or the highway,” and importantly reversing the false idea of winning political campaigns by any means, at any cost. We are better than that.?

Our “better angels” have always known that fairness, justices, public virtue, perseverance, resilience, and compassion are the hallmarks of the American spirit. Former Senator James Webb opined in his 2008 book “A Time to Fight – Reclaiming a Fair and Just America” that we are collectively just “temporary occupants charged with stewardship of our Nation’s ideals.” His words should remind us that the most important “office” in America is occupied by responsible citizens. Responsible citizenship is democracy’s safety net. It requires you to be well informed applying critical thinking, assessing other perspectives while avoiding echo chambers. It requires you to vote. Who we send to D.C., and to state governments, matters.

Character and leadership matter.