When you try to imagine and describe an effective leader, what comes to mind first? A specific set of skills? Character traits? Both? After some thoughtful consideration, you may conclude that the answer is both. However, much of leadership training lacks a focus on character. Reviewing the existing literature on leadership, you will find that much of it is focused on skills, and very little on character. Communication skills, social skills, coaching skills, charisma, etc. fill the bookshelves, promising skills, steps and laws that will turn each of us into efficient and effective leaders.
Are skills all that it takes to be a good leader? Many scholars and practitioners have voiced concern about leadership without character, and the pitfalls and dangers that this brings. The integrity of a leader is of paramount importance if one wants to create a long-lasting and successful organization. One of the important components of leadership, according to experts Kouzes and Pozner, is credibility. People need to believe in their leader. They need to trust him or her. Trust, as described in a recent Forbes Leadership Forum, leads to “better output, morale, retention, innovation, loyalty, and revenue.” Ultimately, trust affects a company’s bottom line more than anything else (Forbes Leadership Forum). Leadership guru Peter Drucker has written that “Management should not appoint a man who considers intelligence more important than integrity.If he lacks in character and integrity — no matter how knowledgeable, how brilliant, how successful — he destroys. He destroys people, the most valuable resource of the enterprise. He destroys spirit. And he destroys performance.”
Therefore, it is better to consider skills as the practical application of one’s character. The skillful use of a scalpel in the hands of a doctor is different from the skillful use of it in the hands of a criminal. While the this analogy may seem a bit extreme, it fairly resembles what Peter Drucker highlights in his statement.
So, do leaders need skills? Sure, they do! First and foremost, however, they need to be people of character. Because it is character that fuels and directs their skills. The logical question that follows then is…what is character? We may have an idea of what character means, but when it comes to defining it, that can be more difficult. Volumes have been written on character, and this blog post will not do justice to the depth and richness of this construct. However, in order to bring clarity to this, I suggest that character represents our inner qualities that reveal themselves through interaction with others. As one scholar put it, character is “that dimension of personality that describes how individuals conduct themselves in interpersonal and organizational situations and is shaped through the simultaneous development of self-identity and self-regulation.” As leaders, we need to know ourselves…our values, our worldview, our goals and our aspirations. We need to know ourselves because, ultimately, organizations we lead will resemble our own character.