Saturday, September 6, 2014

The Missing Ingredient of Effective Leadership


Leadership is not an easy task; balancing finances, communicating vision, developing relationships, pleasing stakeholders, responding to urgent emails, leading team meetings and so it goes on and on.

But, there is something missing.

The business world don't seem to talk about this missing ingredient much and the Christian leadership environment forget to emphasise its importance.

It causes some leaders to fall because of a lack of it, and others to blossom because they embody it.

If I mention Martin Luther King Jr. or Mother Theresa you might begin to nail down what I'm about to say.

I'm speaking about 'Character'.

It caused Henry Cloud to take a step back in 2006 and write a book, entitled: Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality.

Cloud asks, 'How many of you have had a situation in your work experience where someone was very bright, talented, competent, and good at working deals, but there was something about who he or she was as a person that somehow got in the way of all of that ability?'

We understand that in leadership, character matters. In fact, it is the missing ingredient to successful leadership.
Cloud writes that leaders need more than mere competence. Some leaders have great skill sets and abilities yet without character they are missing a key ingredient. Interestingly though, Cloud defines character and integrity as encapsulating more than simply morality.

When we consider character we generally begin thinking about someone who is trustworthy and someone who won't steal our money out of our wallets when we're not looking.

Henry Cloud defines character more broadly than most of us would define the topic. He says that character is the ability to meet the demands of reality. It is not just about trustworthiness, but about how we conduct ourselves in front of others, how we emotionally react to a situation and how we connect with employees. Character and integrity is the state of being whole and undivided. Another definition for character relates to having internal consistency.

We must not miss this ingredient from effective leadership. Character cannot be and should not be swept under the carpet and only be embraced by those who are weak and deluded. Good character is surely a God-given imperative for effective leadership.

Competence in and of itself, is not enough. You must have good character. Don't compromise character for anything. 

2 comments:

  1. I completely agree with you my friend that leadership is really not that easy but being a leader comprises of number of effective qualities. Leaders are inborn but with proper training and guidance and self-confidence, one can acquire that position. Character is something that is really an important ingredient to effective leadership. I appreciate your post Mr. Pete, It's really thoughtful and every individual should pay attention towards it. Leadership coaching can help someone to be a good leader. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. To develop our leadership skills and strategies we are always looking for great opportunities and therefore we used to search for several options to develop our leadership attitude and skills. Leadership attitude will improve our confidence level, personality and decision making ability; therefore we need the support of effective leadership tips. Here we have found some missing ingredients in leadership which indicate towards what kind of efforts we need to develop our leadership attitude and skills.

    ReplyDelete

Popular ALL TIME Posts

PeterBrookshaw.Com

Translate