Pillar 1: Character

We will be looking at the four Pillars of Leadership. This series was born to give brief details on what exactly makes a great leader.

In our culture, there is so much said and not said about leadership. Some of it false, some of it buried, others over-inflated in their worth.

Let’s correct that.

The first pillar, Character, has unfortunately become a cliché leadership check mark. A leader has good character? Check, next! That is a flawed approach to character.

Character goes deeper than that. It is the foundation upon which actions are built. If your foundation, your character, is cracked. Your building, your actions, will cause crumble.

What exactly is character, and how can we intentionally build it?

You are at your office. A colleague asks you for help on his project. You causally say, “Yeah sure.” He emails you the details of the project. It is not something you are well-versed in. What do you do?

Do you meet up with your colleague face to face and inform them? Do you tell them that, even though this is out of your area of expertise, you still want to help?

Would you sit down with him and draw up a win-win plan? And would you carry out your part in that plan without self-interest or complaint?

In case you were wondering, the above choice is the Character choice. Character is your decision to choose the highest good when anything less is easily justifiable.

What do you do when taking the easy road is justifiable? That determines your character.

There is only one way to intentionally build character. Watch your tiny excuses. Take the time to assess how many excuses you make throughout the day. It will, most likely, astound you.

The responsibility of leadership demands constant adherence to the highest good. You, as a leader, must eradicate excuses from your thought process.

Every time you make a tiny excuse, it makes it infinitely easier to make bigger excuses. Eventually it becomes habitual as that’s catastrophic.

This is a remarkably difficult pillar to build. Why bother? The reason is, when crisis comes, and it will, if this pillar is not strong enough, you will collapse disastrously.

And that will wreck the lives of everyone whom you are responsible for.

If, you are able to build this pillar properly, it dramatically increases your dependability in times of crisis. It also builds your self-confidence. You know you can trust yourself because your foundation is rock solid.

In our next article, we will examine the second pillar. Make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss it. Also please share this article if you found it valuable.

My name is Joseph Ohonsi and I help leaders intentionally create what they desire. Ask me about my leadership training camp for leaders who want to improve and sharpen their leadership skills.