Professors James Kouzes and Barry Posner have spend more than twenty-five years surveying leaders in virtually every type of organization, in which they ask, "What values, personal traits, or characteristics do you look for and admire in a leader?" During those years, they have administered a survey questionnaire called "Characteristics of Admired Leaders" to more than seventy-five thousand people on six continents: Africa, North America, South America, Asia, Europe and Australia. "The results," they report, "have been striking in their regularity over the years, and they do not significantly vary by demographical, organizational, or cultural differences." And what quality is most admired in leaders? The answer is honesty.
As Kouzes and Posner explain, honesty, which is the core of good character, is the quality that most enhances or damages personal reputations.
WHAT WE NEED FROM OURSELVES
It comes as little surprise that people want to follow leaders of good character. No one likes to work with unreliable people. But before you or I work with any other person or follow any other leader, who do we have to rely on every day? Ourselves! That's why character is so important. If you cannot trust yourself, you won't ever be able to grow. Good character, with honesty and integrity at its core, is essential to success in any area of life. Without it, a person is building on shifting sand.
Retired general Norman Schwarzkopf asserted, "Ninety-nine percent of leadership failures are failures of character."
From "The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth" by John Maxwell
