Character based or behavior based leadership
On August 5th the Leadership Freak community generated a record number of comments when they answered the question, “What top three leadership qualities should every leader have?” Check out the post, “John Spence on life and leadership,” to review everyone’s comments.
Thanks to J.S. ‘Doc’ Campbell, C.P.H.Q., a featured contributor on Leadership Freak, for cataloging all 223 references to qualities/behaviors and creating a graph of the top 8 vote getters.
If you are having trouble reading the labels along the bottom of the graph, from left to right; character, communication, courage, empathy, humility, integrity, listening, and vision.
Your comments and the graph above are anecdotal not scientific.
You should notice character and integrity are top vote getters with 18 each. It looks to me like courage, empathy, humility, and integrity are character based. While communication, listening, and vision are behavior based.
If this is true, the Leadership Freak community clearly believes that leadership is founded in who you are not in what you do.
In addition, I believe, courage, empathy, humility, and integrity are all components of character. Furthermore, the top four vote-getting components of character are:
1. Integrity – 18
2. Empathy – 10
3. Courage – 8
4. Humility – 8
*****
Do you agree with the assessment I suggest that the Leadership Freak community believes leadership is character based?
Do you agree with the the top four components of character? If not, what are the top four components of character?
Great post! You’re right on target: # 1 Integrity!
I’m becoming addicted to your leadership blogs! Have a great day!
Lyudmila,
Thank you for being a lifter. I appreciate your encouragement.
Cheers,
Dan
Now I understand the direction you were taking with the question to me. This is all so complex because people have so many different nuances of understanding about the words we use to describe good character or good behavior. For example, “good” communication has changed drastically in the last few years.
But I agree that the overall leadership influence results from a combination of character and competence. Both character and competence are necessary to encourage relationships, build trust and lubricate interaction so that people can participate with you in the effort, whatever it is.
Mike,
I value your insights and wisdom. I continue learning from you and others in the Lead Change Group.
You have my regards,
DAn
Oh, this is so interesting. Thanks for putting it together.
Anna,
Thank you!
Dan
Hi Dan,
Being a visual person, I appreciate the graph. I find it interesting that these are the qualities we seek in a leader yet they do require behaviors that indicate one possesses these qualities. I’ve heard leaders who discuss the importance of these qualities, yet fall short in their actions.
So, I’m guessing that when you say, “If this is true, the Leadership Freak community clearly believes that leadership is founded in who you are not in what you do”, you are referring to job title rather than behaviors. Is that correct?
Thanks for the post,
Jen
Jen,
Good seeing you. Thanks for stopping in.
My comment re: the LF community doesn’t reflect my own ideas about character based vs. behavior based leadership.
I believe character is integral to leadership. However character with out the proper leadership behaviors (skills) won’t take you or your organization very far. You can have all the character in the world but if you don’t understand how to build momentum by celebrating small wins you won’t build much momentum.
Another point of clarification. I’ve made character based leadership = leadership based on who you are as a person. I wasn’t thinking of job titles. Thank you for asking.
Cheers,
Dan
I’m curious to know your view on this. Sometimes congregants view courage as over-aggressiveness and arrogance and a complete lack of humility. I realize that integrity and empathy will go a long way to help with this, but every church has its skeptics. What would you say helps keep the courage/humility balance? Thanks.
David,
I think courageous leadership in religious organizations is the same as in other organizations.
Leadership courage is rooted in the leaders alignment with the values/mission/vision of the organization. The more clearly everyone understand these ideas the more able leaders able to align with them. The more aligned leaders are the more courage/authority they have. The less aligned leaders are the more autocratic, independent, and perhaps arrogant they seem.
It seems to me that many volunteer organizations are not run on values, mission, and vision. They are run on the personal preference of those with social authority. This creates power struggles.
I’m not sure if I’m hitting on this topic in a useful way. Feel free to email or DM on twitter if you’d like to discuss more. There’s an email link in the upper right navigation bar.
Cheers,
Dan
Dan,
A good point made. I am working with our congregational leadership via Will Mancini’s Church Unique process to really come up with the values, mission, and vision that God has for us. And I think that it causes all leaders, including me, to be more focused and less scattered. The challenge is getting the less aligned leaders on board. There has to be strong maturity and…humility… and courage to do that.
David,
I do a lot of work with nonprofit organizations, and I agree with Dan’s view that good leadership (not just well-meaning, but effective leadership) requires the leader’s values to be aligned with the values, mission and vision of the organization.
I also believe that there will always be individuals who see others — even some of the best leaders — as arrogant. These are emotion-laden terms and we all bring our own baggage to the table. Integrity, empathy and authentic dialogue are just some of the tools used by a good leader and can, perhaps, change criticism into acceptance and understanding. But part of being courageous is to do what is in the best interest of the organization and in keeping with the organizations mission, vision and values even when it is not popular.
Several years ago I worked with a nonprofit organization that was offered a huge gift (over $1 million). The funds would have solved the organization’s immediate financial problems, but it came with strings. The donor would only give the money to the organization if a certain individual was fired from her position. Many people thought the organization should accept the money. The Executive Director disagreed and was ultimately forced to draw a line in the sand. If the board accepted the funds, he would resign. Some board members agreed with the executive director, but his position was not a popular one — others thought the Executive Director was being foolish, arrogant and naive. Emotions were stirred. People were afraid and acted out of fear. They also struck out against anyone who disagreed with them — again, out of fear.
In the end, the board voted to accept the funds. The woman who worked as the office manager was fired. The Executive Director resigned. There was a ton of publicity — none of it positive. Within two years, the organization had closed its doors. I don’t know if this helps, or if I’m really explaining myself well, but the point I am trying to make is that as a leader, you can’t always please everyone. If you are pleasing everyone — all the time — it’s likely that you aren’t really being a good leader.
When I think of the truly courageous and humble religious leaders of our time, I think of Ghandi, Rev. Martin Luther King, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, The Dalai Lama and Mother Theresa. None of these incredible individuals is perfect. Each one has been accused — sometimes quite rightly — of being arrogant. It is a part of what makes them human. And that is a part of what makes them great leaders. In my opinion, to be a great leader requires you to be able and willing to make mistakes; to be completely and utterly wrong; to be human — and then to recognize, admit to and learn from those mistakes.
Being honest with yourself and differentiating between valid criticism (which requires reflection, acceptance, acknowledgment and action) and fear-based criticism (which requires empathy towards those who are critical) is a key piece of this puzzle.
If yours is a Christian church, let Jesus be your role model. He certainly was courageous. He practiced humility (I believe humility is a life-long practice, and we all stumble from time-to-time). And he most certainly was not always popular! Yet he was undoubtedly a great religious leader.
The desire to be liked is also human. As a good and effective leader, you won’t always be liked. Your job is simply to do your best — and forgive yourself when you make a mistake and others when they make a mistake.
I’m afraid this response is a little bit disjointed. It’s a great question and a difficult topic. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and keeping the conversation going!
And thank you, Dan, for inviting me into the conversation. I am truly honored!
Powerful, powerful story Erica, thank you very much for sharing it! Here’s hoping the Exec Director landed at a place that appreciated his conviction.
I bet there is a whole lot more to the story.
David,
Take courage where it matters. Like Dan says, this usually has to with clear values/mission/passion that people can follow. But, there is another place where courage and humility intersect – being able to admit a mistake or a shortcoming. Congregations (generally) don’t want someone who thinks they have nothing to learn or who has everything “together” – what they want is someone who faces the same life issues they have, but have found a way to overcome them through Christ. It takes a lot of courage to be real and vulnerable to people you lead, but that’s what people really want.
I don’t think that courage is in opposition to humility. It all depends on who/what you are placing your courage in. All through out Scripture, ppl that placed their faith/courage in God saw His power demonstrated in unbelievable ways. Through out the Old Testament, when the Kings placed their faith in themselves, arrogance set in. So I think to see courage and humility as opposites isn’t always true. Hope that helps.
I’ve been thinking about your comment on arrogance being connected with courage. I think that it can be, but it doesn’t have to be. I think a much stronger leadership quality (sometimes perceived as arrogance) is self-awareness.
The more self-aware a leader is the capable they are in inspiring others just through their own authenticity. I think that this holds true in the non-profit world as well as across organizations, churches, etc. A self-aware leader can facilitate an environment in which others feel compelled to understand themselves better and consequently allow themselves to create the change the leader had hoped for and create the change they had always been capable of making.
I appreciate the graph; it is good to see the final rankings. When I look at these, I imagine everyone’s votes were based on our personal experiences and I believe the “who you are” and “what you do” cannot be separated. Your character, integrity, courage, and humility set the stage for how you will lead and react to conditions. In fact, I would lump listening in with communication, which would help to equalize the character-based and behavior-based traits. Thanks again for a great post.
Madelyn,
Thanks for your comment and for noting that listening should be lumped in with communication. So true. I totally missed that.
Cheers,
Dan
In looking over all of the comments, there were a number that overlapped and probably could have been ‘lumped’ together. Character and Integrity the most obvious.
I suppose there was graph designer bias with leaving communication separate from listening. 😉 Although, giving listening its own space as a leadership skill has value.
There were several traits/qualities with 4,5, or 6 repetitions that overlapped some and if lumped together would have made the list a top 10 list. Strategic had several variations or close variation and that was one area that John Spence also noted as a high priority. The arbitrary cut off was 8 repetitions.
Character-based traits are absolutely #1…sure competence is important, but emotional intelligence (empathy, self-awareness, impulse control, etc…) is key when leading others. Love this post, great job!
One of the mentors in our community said that “you are only renting your position”. Your comment on leadership being “who you are, not what you do” reminded me of that quote. I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. In my experience, so much of growing into leadership is about getting to really know who you are. Your integrity and character can only emerge when you’re clear on your own self. Putting on a “mask” or assuming a set of behaviours to become the title you’ve been given will never allow you to really reach your own leadership potential. The word authenticity comes to mind…
It does seem to me that what you are referring to is the “soul” that you are vs. the human that you are. One is a core element while the other is more peripheral to (or an extension of) the core.
I don’t think that leaders have to be perfect to be effective. And there are so many instances in reality where folks are placed into leadership roles unwillingly, without experience or without talent, who rise to the occasion in spite of their weaknesses and are effective – because at the core they have these traits. Character and integrity go a long way even when other traits are weak. It’s not to say the other traits are not important. But I do think that a marathon run requires a core of these timeless elements.
My other observation is that character and integrity probably still mean much the same today as they did a hundred years or so ago. Their impact is still much the same upon the people around the leader. However other traits, say humility and courage, are more personal or fluid in terms of interpretation and certainly have changed. Not only was humility and courage of a couple hundred years ago something probably quite different that what we think of in our modern world, they’re also up for interpretation based on cultural background as well.
Now all analogies break down somewhere, but what I see is the difference between timeless core elements of the human spirit and then more flexible and nebulous elements that can be more up to personal interpretation and even personality.
I have to admit that when I first saw Humility ranking near the bottom of this list I was a bit concerned. But I think a couple of things that temper my reaction are:
1) I don’t think you can ask someone to rank these type of leadership qualities and ask people for a Top 3. Every leader I know – especially pastors – better be growing in each of these areas.
2) To see that Character & Integrity are the Top 2 also brings me a sense that most of the people polled are focused on their character, not their personality.
I would still liked to have seen Humility make the Top 3. Praying that it does in my life and in the attitude of my heart.
Great point Brian. While you see humility near the ‘bottom’ of this list, there were 93 semi-distinct items listed as the leadership traits. So, with that perspective, being #7 or #8 out of 93 seems a high priority to me.
David and Dan, when I saw this question, I was reminded of research done by McClelland and Atkinson that I came across in one of Marlene Wilson’s books on volunteer management. They speak of negative power people and positive power people. The first type exerts “personal” power and the second exerts “social” power. Personal power people want power for their own aggrandizement…they use their power ON people and sometimes that can be toxic. They see power as finite and scarce. Either they have it or someone else does.
Social power people are enablers. They want to influence and impact others in a win-win way. They see power as infinite and don’t mind sharing it. Their goal is to help you succeed.
I think this applies well to leadership and the idea of courageous leadership, which can be used for good or ill. We’ve all experienced leaders that enabled and leaders who squelched their followers. Both exhibit leadership and courage, but in different ways. See more about this idea at http://nonprofit.about.com/od/volunteers/a/motivatevols.htm
Thanks, Dan, for alerting me to this very interesting discussion. I love the graph too!
Hello Dan,
I love your work, every post is so interesting and useful. And also all comments on your blog are valuable. When I read all these good thoughts I hardly want to add something…:).
But now :
I think four components of character are:
– the willing to improve and to learn
– the courage to apply what you learned
– the ability to understand others
– a real balance between heart and brain
all the best! Simona
If you display courage rooted in good values, that is about all you can ask. As Peppler notes, some will construe the actions as aggressive or in some way negative. You can’t control how they think or interpret. Make right decisions for right reasons, and it will all come out in the wash.
I am not surprised by the graph coming from leadership minded people. One of the fears we have is that we might fail in the character/integrity department. We’ve seen the damage done when failure happens. So, we usually have a very strong attachment to these characteristics in ourselves.
Also, while, not surprising, it is ironic to me that communication is held so high while empathy is not. I have to admit some failure on my part here. When people tell me why they are disappointed in my leadership, my apparent lack of empathy seems to be the culprit more than communication. What’s striking is that I believe that I have strong empathy – I seriously and deeply care – I must not be communicating it well.
Great post. Interesting findings. From a T&D point of view it’s interesting on how some have commented on the format of your findings (eg a graph). I’d love to see what a word cloud looks like with the data (www.wordle.net).
The top qualities (integrity, empathy, humility and courage) sounds a lot like From Good to Great’s level 5 leadership.
I’d add creativity and social responsibility to the list.
Thanks for the reminder about the word cloud Lee-Anne, had been to that site about 3 months ago and apparently deleted it from my recent memory. I will crank out a version of that too. Seeing all 93 words might spark some additional perspectives.
All 223 traits word clouded…
http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/2321922/Leadership_traits“
LOVE it- thanks so much for doing that. I use wordle all the time- in program evaluation, training trainers etc.
For example, recently I did a program evaluation training for the UN in Istanbul and I asked participants to write out 5 words describing how they felt about evaluation. In between workshops I dumped all the words into wordle and later showed the group the resulting word cloud; http://ow.ly/2tE3w
Makes for a free, easy, convenient and high impact data analysis tool. Participants loved it.
You can even do a word cloud through wordle on your delicious links – helps readers see what you tag most frequently. Here’s mine as an example: http://ow.ly/2tDY0
If you want to do you own, simply go to wordle.net, hit the button ‘create’ and put your delicious account name at the bottom.
Cheers
Lee-Anne
Dear Dan,
This is wonderful. I’m always glad when I see integrity scoring so high. The statistics are most helpful for my work. Thank you. Peace and all good,
Diane
I think a church leader’s relationship with God helps keep that balance. It may sound like a typical answer, but I think it’s true. The only reason any leader should have for confidence and courage is His ability to listen and obey what HIS leader (God) is saying. At the same time, the humility side of it says, “The boldness, courage, and confidence is only here because of God in me.” So, remembering where your strength and power lie help keep it balanced. Ultimately, however, all people will have skeptics. That’s just something a church leader has to deal with… A church leader’s number one priority must be on God and following Him. The rest will balance itself out.
Dear Dan,
What a great way to divide leadership quality into two part! I appreciate your in-depth analysis about leadership. I absolutely agree that leadership is character based. I also agree with the four components of character-based leadership. In fact, both are interconnected and leads to next. I think, integrity is a character and is a strong platform; empathy, courage and humility are positive feelings and are emitted automatically from base i.e. character. Behavior-based leadership is the reflection of character-based leadership and not vice versa. So, communication, vision, listening are explicit behavior and behavior is reflection of attitude. So, in that sense again attitude is based on integrity. Therefore, Character based leaders are foundation to help people, society and community to develop and they leave legacy.
Ajay,
Glad you dropped in and thanks for the good word.
Your last line hits home. Its leaders with good character that leave a positive legacy. Leaders with poor character may succeed for awhile but their lasting legacy is shadowed by character defects.
Best regards,
Dan
Ajay is a featured contributor on Leadership Freak. I’ve posted his bio and contact info at http://leadershipfreak.wordpress.com/ajay-gupta
Dear Dan,
While appreciating the efforts taken by J.S. ‘Doc’ Campbell, C.P.H.Q. in summarizing the essential leadership traits, I disagree on the traits as listed. these are the common traits of anyone to remain successful.
I feel that we have missed out on four major things that every leader possess i.e. competence, hardwork, high level of commitment and a sense of achievement. An ability to select and develop the team of followers and their exemplary role can also be part of a leader’s traits.
Dr. Asher,
Glad to have you jump in and “think otherwise.” Just a point of clarification. Doc was simply summarizing the qualities he listed were not ones he listed.
Regardless, you bring an entirely new component to the discussion. For that I am thankful.
Best regards,
Dan,
Dr. Asher is a featured contributor on Leadership Freak. I’ve posted his bio and contact information at http://leadershipfreak.wordpress.com/dr-asher
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