It establishes and strengthens your inner life so that you are a person of integrity and honour. It enables you to effectively fulfill your purpose and potential. It protects your leadership and your vision-preventing you from cancelling them prematurely and enabling you to leave a legacy for your own generation.
Character is more important than charisma. Values are more important than vision. Leadership is impossible without a A guiding vision and a purpose. A deep passion for accomplishment. Principles that regulate leadership behaviour. Integrating Vision and Values Vision without values is destiny without discipline. Vision is protected by values. Vision is interpreted through values. The organizational vision is corporate purpose in pictures.
Organizational values are corporate convictions manifested. Vision and values are the marriage of purpose and principles. Character Accountability Character is accountability to self-others and God. Accountability is commitment to your personal integrity. Personal decision is never private. Your private life is simply a demonstration of your public declaration. The Power of Character Character and integrity are protection of leadership. Leadership without Character Leadership without character is Power with Principle.
Leadership without character is gifts of the Spirit without the fruit of the Spirit. Leadership without Character is an abuse of Trust. The Priority of Character The goal of true leadership is Integrity. The most important component of leadership is Character.
Character is integrity manifested. Character is the personal submission to the discipline of principles that protect talents and gifts. The Sources of Values The most powerful component of leadership is Philosophy.
Nothing happens without leadership. Leaders establish governments, start businesses, make scientific discoveries and advances, disseminate religious and philosophical ideas, and otherwise foster human culture. Nothing succeeds without leadership. Leaders develop ideas, carry out endeavors, and keep projects going. Nothing is altered or transformed without leadership. Unless an individual or a group of people begin to think differently or act differently, circumstances usually remain the sameor become worse.
Nothing develops without leadership. Leaders take initiative to implement innovations, build on what has come before, and expand on prior successes. Nothing advances without leadership. Leaders are enterprising and forward-looking. They are often eager to enhance a societys quality of life through improved efficiency, greater convenience, and the introduction of new products and services.
Nothing improves without leadership. Leaders see potential in situations and conditions where others see no hope and have no vision of the way things could be. Nothing is corrected without leadership. To fix errors and solve problems, someone has to take responsibility to see that adjustments are made. Leaders help societies to make a course correction when they have veered onto a destructive path.
Leadership is therefore key to human preservation, growth, and change. No matter what condition a society or nation finds itself in, it didnt arrive there by accident. Someone led them there. Every person on earth is being guided, influenced, or manipulated by someone. Directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously, we are continually being led by those who are our official leaders, as well as those who have become our de facto leaders by their influence over us.
That is why our current problems wont be solved without a renewed emphasis on the foundational elements of positive and effective leadership.
Countries, corporations, institutions, organizations, departments, and so forth will be effective and successful only insofar as their leaders are effective and successful. When leaders in all realms of life make a commitment to strengthen their leadership, they will enable their society to improve, survive, and progress. We know that leadership is very much related to change. As the pace of change accelerates, there is naturally a greater need for effective leadership.
John Kotter, renowned businessman, professor, and author. Who Has Been Leading Us? I have spoken at universities where Ive met administrators, professors, and students. I have been a consultant to corporate gurus and government leaders. I have been interviewed on hundreds of television shows. In the process, I have met many well-known leaders.
Yet, with a few exceptions, the famous and influential people I have encountered have not impressed. Who has been leading our nations? Unfortunately, we have been influenced by many leaders and institutions that lack the quality of moral forceand their attitudes and actions are being absorbed by the culture at large.
Below is a sampling of leaders and organizations in various realms of life that, at the time of the writing of this manuscript, have been associated with ethical controversies, sexual and financial scandals, or criminal activity. In essence, they were victims of our societys crisis of defective character. Many leaders on the world and national stage who should be about the business of building up their nations are instead violating the public trust, breaking the law, and committing crimes against humanity.
They are finding themselves in the headlinesand appearing before judges and other tribunals. Some of the issues represented in this list are complex, while others are straightforward.
At the time this book went to press, the outcomes of several of these situations were yet to be resolvedeither by legislatures or courts. In some cases, not all the facts have been made public to allow for a full assessment. Yet these examples from the last several decades illustrate the range of ethical and moral crises in leadership with which the United States and nations around the world are being confronted.
Government and Politics. The administration of U. President Barack Obama is dealing with several controversial ethical issues. Obama was admonished by the press, members of the U. Congress, and the public regarding the Justice Departments subpoenas of the phone records of reporters from the Associated Press while the department gathered intelligence related to a leak about a terrorist threat.
A similar controversy flared in relation to phone records from Fox News in regard to Justices investigation into a leak about North Korea. All of these issues are ongoing. Anthony Weiner of New York resigned his seat in the U. Congress after it was disclosed that the married congressman had sent sexually explicit text messages and photographs to women. He then ran for mayor of New York City, refusing to drop out of the primary race, even after a subsequent sexting scandal, despite political pressure to do so.
President Bill Clinton was impeached by the U. House of Representatives for perjury and obstruction of justice related to his testimony about the Monica Lewinsky scandal. He remained in office when the impeachment votes for both charges failed in the Senate. Ronald Reagans presidency was tainted by the Iran-Contra affair, in which the National Security Agency sold arms to Iran in exchange for American hostages, even though an embargo against Iran was in effect.
Some of the money from the sale then went to Nicaraguan Contras to support their fight against the Sandinista government. This was in violation of the Boland Amendment, which was passed by Congress to prohibit military aid to the Contras. The year prior to Nixons resignation, his vice president resigned his office due to political corruption involving bribery and extortion, as well as tax evasion.
The former president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is being investigated for his alleged role in a scheme to buy votes from members of the Brazilian Congress during the time he was in office. The newly elected president of Kenya and his deputy president, William Ruto, face trial by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, including murder and rape.
Kenyatta and his deputy president, William Ruto, incited gang violence that left more than 1, people dead following his predecessors disputed election in Both men deny the charges. The convictions may be appealed. He then served a brief time in jail in France for money laundering and was required to surrender nearly three million dollars held in his French bank accounts. France then permitted that he be extradited to Panama to serve prison time there for murder.
This loss had led to various investigations into the companys practices and procedures. Under a plea bargain, the U. He was sentenced to years in prison. In , there was a shakeup of leadership at the bank after a new money laundering scandal. The spotless public image of golf champion Tiger Woods was tarnished when his multiple extramarital affairs became public.
Woods received therapy for sexual addiction and returned to the sport. The Patriots also had to forgo a potential first-round draft pick. Champion cyclist Lance Armstrong and Olympic sprinter Marion Jones are among many athletes who have admitted to using illegal performance-enhancing drugs. Armstrongs seven Tour de France titles were taken away, and he was banned from professional cycling for life.
He also served five months of jail time and community service for income tax evasion. Numerous sexual abuse allegations have been lodged against Catholic priests in nations around the world. Charges have been filed in.
Bishop Long has stated that he is innocent, and he settled out of court with the plaintiffs. Taylor for losses in an alleged Ponzi scheme. District Court against Taylor, his company, and his former chief operating officer. In addition, he spent time in prison for mail and wire fraud and conspiracy in relation to his ministrys fund-raising. Mel Gibson, formerly one of Hollywoods most popular and influential actors, was divorced by his wife after more than thirty years of marriage and seven children, for irreconcilable differences, though infidelity may have played a role; his wife was awarded half his fortune.
The Times public editor, Margaret Sullivan, stated that Blair lied and faked and cheated his way through story after storyscores of them, for years. He fabricated sources, plagiarized material from other publications, and pretended to be places he never went.
The reporters conduct hurt the Times reputation for accuracy and honesty. Author James Frey admitted to fabricating facts in his best-selling memoir A Million Little Pieces, setting off a controversy about what constitutes memoir and the line between fact and fiction.
The attorney general of Montana, where the charity is located, stated, Mr. Mortenson may not have intentionally deceived the board or his employees, but his disregard for and attitude about basic record keeping and accounting for his activities essentially had the same effect. The book was coauthored by David Oliver Relin. In a controversy unrelated to the charity mismanagement, there were allegations that Mortenson had included fabrications in his book, while Mortenson asserted only some literary license was taken.
Coauthor Relin, whose integrity was effectively never in question in the matter, had acknowledged in his introduction to the book that there might be unavoidable inaccuracies in relating Mortensons experiences. He wrote, His fluid sense of time made pinning down the exact sequence of many events in this book almost impossible. A judge dismissed the suit. Relin committed suicide in ; his family stated that he had suffered from depression. He used the money to support a lavish lifestyle and a young mistress.
Jones filed a wrongful-termination lawsuit, and the organization filed a countersuit, accus[ing] Jones of taking bribes, hoarding hardcore pornographyusing a charity employee as a personal nannymisspending charity funds, pocketing travel money, and keeping gifts from appearances. He and Feed the Children reached an out-of-court settlement in which Jones apparently received some compensation but was not reinstated as head of the organization.
Many more examples could be cited. Revelations of such scandals have become commonplacethey are reported almost every day in newspapers, on broadcast and cable news, on the Internet, on Facebook, and via Twitter. From a leadership standpoint, these situations illustrate several realities: 1 Character problems are widespread among leaders in many fields of endeavor.
Ask Bill Clinton. Ask Bernie Madoff. Ask Lance Armstrong. Ask Jim Bakker. Ask Mel Gibson. Ask Greg Mortenson. Their character flaws caught up with them. For some, it tainted their reputations.
For others, it. For this reason, the critical issue of character must be addressed, as nations, regions, and local communities; businesses and corporations; civic organizations; religious groups; political parties; armed forces; educational institutions; and families continue to search for quality and qualified leaders to take the helm of responsibility and guide them to a better life and a promising future.
Though the above are high-profile cases that became national and global scandals, the disintegration of character today is found in every type of leadership and on every level of societyincluding the local level and ordinary peoples lives.
It is found in our homes, with leaders spouses and parents who have extramarital affairs, use illegal drugs, abuse alcohol, rack up gambling debts, enter into risky financial investments in hopes of finding a fast track to wealth, abuse family members, and engage in other destructive actions.
It is found in our local companies, with workers who embezzle money, steal equipment, or are lazy on the job. It is found in our schools, with teachers who engage in sexual relations with their students, or with students who cheat on exams and engage in bullying through social networksand sometimes even bring guns to school and shoot their classmates and teachers. It is found in our universities, with professors who plagiarize scholarly works and undergraduates who pay other students to write their term papers.
No one should think he is too smart or too safe to avoid consequences of a lack of character. Perhaps you are thinking, Im not in danger of losing my job or being sentenced to prison.
However, if we as leaders ignore the necessity of character developmentif we allow character defects to influence uswe risk failure in our personal lives, our leadership, and our future. A Psyche of Distrust One disturbing result of the crisis of character in leadership is that it has created a psyche of distrust among the general public.
There are, of. But while the nations of the world desperately need strong, authentic leaders, too many people in positions of authority are self-absorbed. They operate according to misplaced priorities or opportunistic motives. They fail to offer anything of lasting value to their families, associates, clients, customers, or fellow citizens. Instead, they abuse and misuse them. Ethically deficient leaders are leaving a legacy of fear, skepticism, and confusion among those who follow them or are otherwise affected by their leadership.
For example, will the time come when we can watch a race at a trackand-field meet or a cycling event and not secretly ask ourselves if the champion won because he used performance-enhancing drugs?
We often harbor the notion that the winner must have cheated somehow. Or, even though we may make allowance for some unintended memory lapses, when will we be able to read a memoir and not have to wonder if some or most of it has been fabricated? Sadly, we have become wary of the validity of such accounts. Or again, when a large corporation is successful, when will we be rid of lingering suspicions about its business practices and how it turned a profit?
We question whether big corporations can make money and still be ethical. What Happened to Character in Leadership? Why are todays leaders so deficient in character? A major reason is that, across the globe, much of leadership trainingboth formal and informalfails to emphasize or even include the concept of character as an essential element of leadership. In addition, many governmental and corporate leaders, along with supervisors, bosses, and others in authority, are not mentoring their colleagues and employees in important principles of character development though they still expect honesty and integrity from them.
Instead, as we will see, other elements of leadership have been given prioritytitles, position, power, intelligence, skills, gifts, talents, educational qualifications, knowledge, competence, and charisma or other personality traits. In the process, we have produced charismatic leaders without character gifted leaders without convictions powerful leaders without principles intellectual leaders without morality visionary leaders without values spiritual leaders without conscience The nations of the world do not lack people in leadership positions.
They lack genuine leadership in their leaders. The result is that we have no shortage of individuals running our countries and businesses and organizations who have titles and high-level positions. They are well-dressed and well-groomed. They are excellent communicators. They are highly skilled in their fields. Yet, as we have noted, these qualities havent prevented an epidemic of character fallout among leaders of various categories whether presidents and prime ministers, CEOs and directors, priests and pastors, or spouses and parents.
The nations of the world do not lack people in leadership positions. Telltale Signs What great leaders can you name who are alive today?
0コメント