In our series on leadership attributes, we now look at character. British Pastor Charles Spurgeon said that a godly character is the best tombstone. But what exactly is character, or more specifically good character? It may be one of those attributes that are hard to describe, but you know it when you see it.
Many years ago, one of my supervisors and I were interviewing candidates for an entry level position in our organization. The individual selected for the position would be working on the second or third shift, essentially unsupervised. A person of good character was critical in this position. One of our interview questions was “What does character mean? What does it mean to say that someone has good character”? Although each candidate tried, we never did get a satisfactory answer to our questions about character. We then told the interviewees that a definition that we had heard that we liked was:
Character is doing the right thing when nobody is watching
A dictionary definition that may come closest to what I am talking about here is “moral excellence”. Continue reading →
The subject of leadership is something I think of often. We are all impacted by our leaders, be it for good or bad, from the President of the United States to our immediate supervisor and parents. Soon, I’ll be teaching a class at our church on how to lead like Jesus. The idea behind the class is to make our church a “leadership factory”, teaching how to be a Christ-centered leader no matter where you lead – business, church, sports, non-profit or the home. What better place to learn how to lead like Jesus than the church?
As I prepared to teach the class, I once again gave thought to what the essential qualities of a great leader are. These are qualities that apply to all leaders, wherever they serve. We could name any number of qualities that would be desirable for a leader to have. For example, John Maxwell is known to say that leadership is influence, nothing more and nothing less.
The 2020 Presidential election is fast approaching. What characteristics will voters find most important when they vote for the leader that will represent our country? Some people may focus more on competency, while others may focus more on character. There were eight manager openings in Major League Baseball after the season ended. What qualities are General Managers looking for as they fill those openings?
If you had to name the 5 most essential qualities of a great leader, what would they be, and why? And, what leader(s) would come to mind that demonstrate each of these qualities. Below I’ll share my thoughts on this. Continue reading →
When we look to do business with an organization, we look to work with people in that organization that have both competency and character. First, we need people who know their jobs, and have the skills and experience to take care of what we need them to do for us. Second, and every bit as important, if not more so, we need them to be honest, have integrity and be people of character. A definition that I have used for character for many years is doing the right thing when nobody is watching. Carey Nieuwhof writes in his new book Didn’t See It Coming, that all the competency in the world can’t compensate for a lack of character.
My wife and I recently had an unexpected encounter with a person in a service profession who demonstrated honesty, integrity and character. An indicator light in Tammy’s car showed that the front left tire was running low. That was surprising as she had bought four new tires just five months ago. After adding air to the tire, we noticed a bubble in it so she set up an appointment to get the tire replaced. What happened next was a true demonstration of honesty, integrity and character. Continue reading →
A compromise doesn’t have to be something negative. For example, we compromise when a dispute is settled by mutual concession. But a compromise can also be when we accept standards that are lower than desirable. It is that latter definition that I want to explore here – those situations in which we compromise our character, values, beliefs or integrity. James 4:17 tells us “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin”.
I got to thinking about this recently when we were discussing the chapter on missions from John Piper’s book Don’t Waste Your Life in our faith and work book club at work. One of the members of our group asked what we would do if our employer put strong restrictions on how we lived out our faith at work. One way of looking at this issue is by looking at R.C. Sproul’s quote about obeying the government. Sproul stated that we should obey the government unless it prohibits us from doing something that God commands, or commands us to do something that God prohibits.
I thought about the concept of compromise again a few days later when I heard that the Chicago White Sox baseball team had hired Rick Renteria as their new manager. Renteria had been the manager of the rebuilding crosstown Chicago Cubs, and assured that he would be returning for the 2015 season until Joe Madden, arguably one of the best managers in the game, became available. Then Cubs president Theo Epstein went back on his word to Renteria. Epstein didn’t skirt the issue at the time, stating “We saw it as a unique opportunity and faced a clear dilemma: be loyal to Rick or be loyal to the organization. In this business of trying to win a world championship for the first time in 107 years, the organization has priority over any one individual. We decided to pursue Joe.” So the Cubs, who on Saturday night advanced to the World Series for the first time in 71 years, and will face the Cleveland Indians to try to win it for the first time since 1908, compromised their promise to their manager, so that they could sign another manager that could lead them to a championship. That is what the Cubs were willing to compromise on – winning a championship became more important than keeping their word. And so that my Cub fan readers won’t think I’m picking just on them, many St. Louis Cardinals fans felt that the Cardinals organization compromised a few years back when they signed infielder Jhonny Peralta who had been caught and punished for using performance enhancing drugs. How about you? In what areas are you willing to compromise?
There are an endless amount of other situations we could look at regarding compromise. This year’s presidential election gives us many examples. I’ll consider just two. What about Mike Pence, an Evangelical who agreed to be the running mate of Donald Trump, a man of questionable principles? Or how about Tim Kaine, a Roman Catholic, who agreed to be the running mate of Hillary Clinton and run on a pro-abortion platform, which is contrary to his Catholic faith?
The Bible gives us both positive (Daniel) and negative (David) examples as far as compromise. In what areas of life do we face compromise today? There are many, and here are just a few possibilities:
As a leader, do you take credit when things go well, but blame your team when things don’t?
Or do we shade the truth at work to put ourselves in a positive light, perhaps by taking credit for work that we didn’t do?
Are we dishonest when completing our tax returns?
Do we visit Internet sites that we know we shouldn’t because nobody is watching?
Do we handle our business dealings with integrity?
Do we share information with others when we’ve been asked not to? (Even under the guise of praying for someone).
As a leader, are you known for doing whatever it takes to help you achieve your career goals for advancement, mowing over people and leaving “dead bodies” in your wake?
Do we compromise our marriage vows by carrying on an affair, even an affair of the heart, with a co-worker?
Do we tell others that we will be praying for them to make ourselves look good, but then not pray for them?
As Christians, we don’t want to be people who compromise our character, values, beliefs or integrity. It’s easy to find plenty of examples about others who have compromised, but harder to look at ourselves. What other examples of compromise can you think of?
LeBron James closed his eyes and began vocalizing various imprecatory Psalms Friday night during the postgame interview, appealing to God directly into the microphone, asking him to utterly destroy the Golden State Warriors and their leader, Stephen Curry. http://babylonbee.com/news/lebron-james-invokes-imprecatory-psalms-curry-warriors-postgame-interview/ From The Babylon Bee ~ Your Trusted Source For Christian News Satire.
The Toxic Lie of Me Before You. In discussing the new film Me Before You, based on a popular book, Samuel James writes “Moyes, the novel’s author, acknowledges that she was motivated at least in part by her sympathy for patients who desire assisted suicide. “There are no right answers. It’s a completely individual thing,” she explained. “I hope what the story does, whether it’s the book or film, is make people think twice before judging other people’s choices.”
Mel Gibson Planning The Passion of the ChristBraveheart screenwriter Randall Wallace says he is writing a follow-up to the biblical blockbuster that will focus on the resurrection of Jesus.
Can We Talk? Why I Think a Trump Presidency is Intolerable Even Though You Might Not Agree. Thabiti Anyabwile writes “This post is for that larger percentage of the Christian public that actually feels little threat from differing opinion, even benefits from it. This post is for folks who can affirm a brother as a brother while pushing back—even pushing back hard.”
In our series on leadership attributes, we now look at character. British Pastor Charles Spurgeon said that a godly character is the best tombstone. But what exactly is character, or more specifically good character? It may be one of those attributes that are hard to describe, but you know it when you see it.
