Brent Filson's Action LeadershipTM Report is a monthly e-zine helping leaders achieve more results, faster results, continually.

In this issue, CHARACTER: Is it necessary? How do we know what it is? How can leaders communicate it? Can it boost leadership results? How can it help your career?

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"Authority is a poor excuse for leadership. Poor leaders order people to do a job. Action leaders have those people choose to be the cause leaders of that job — for more results, faster, continually." — Brent Filson

Vol. 2 Number5, May 2004

Publisher: The Filson Leadership Group, Inc.

brent@actionleadership.com

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© Copyright 2004 The Filson Leadership Group, Inc.

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Reprinted from Brent Filson's Action Leadership Report, a free e-zine helping leaders get more results, faster, continually. Subscribe at www.actionleadership.com and receive Brent Filson's free report, 49 Tips On Using Action To Get Results and the QuickSpeech download.

In This Issue: The Leadership Necessity Of Character

SECTION 1: Brent Filson's Weekly Tips To Lead By

Week 1 - Character: It May Be Your Greatest Leadership Strength

Week 2 - Your Character and Your Leadership

Week 3 - Getting Results Through the Development of Your Character

Week 4 - Character and Deep Results

SECTION 2: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

SECTION 3: Points of Light

SECTION 4: Message from Brent Filson

SECTION 5: News

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SECTION 1: Brent Filson's Tips to Lead By

Apply these continually throughout the month.

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Week 1 - Character: It May Be Your Greatest Leadership Strength

We know character when we see it, but what exactly is it? How do we define it? What role does it play in our getting results as leaders? What role does character play in our careers?

This month we'll explore these questions and give tips on using character to get results and build your career.

A key function of character in leadership is to engender trust in people, and the function of their trust is to have them take action for results. Few leaders come to grips with the challenges of character B and so miss great job and career opportunities.

Let's start with its root, which comes from a Greek word, kharakter, a chisel or marking instrument for metal or stone.

Our character, then, is our mark engraved into something enduring. We can mold mannerisms, but we must chisel our character. Of course, we don't carry around a stone or a sheet of metal marked with our "character." The enduring thing is the aggregate of the traits and features that form our apparent individual nature.

"Apparent" is the operative word. Our character exists not only in and of itself, but also as an appearance to others. The fact that character exists both in us and in the minds of other people holds a powerful leadership lesson.

This week, describe five of the best leaders in history. Then, list three to five character traits that made each one the best.

Describe five of the worst leaders in history, and list three to five character traits that made each one the worst.

Now make the same lists for the people in your industry and your own organization.

Did you learn something new about leadership and character? What did you learn?

I emphasize new because, in identifying elements that compose character, we come to understand the thinking processes that help us form character judgments. Because we commonly make snap judgments about people, we must be aware of how and why we make those judgments, so we can clarify and make better use of them in our leadership.

Week 2 - Your Character and Your Leadership

The ultimate character we must be concerned with, of course, is our own. Our character influences our leadership, and through our leadership, our careers. Few leaders make the connection between career and character in this way, let alone do something about it. Your doing so will give you a tremendous advantage in your career.

We know that it's much harder to see our own character than for us to see the character of others. At this point, however, it's unnecessary to try to understand what your character actually is. You need only realize that, for purposes of leadership, your character is forged in values and manifested in relationships.

Values are the qualities that spur action. Moreover, values are tied to emotions. We feel strongly about the values we hold and look to others to hold, and because of such feelings, we're usually acting on our values in one way or another.

Look at the character of the leaders you described. You probably described values — or lack of them.

(Whenever I ask people to describe a specific leader, they invariably cite values as the main elements.)

Which values did you admire in the leaders you chose? These might include, honesty, integrity, persistence, compassion, wisdom, simplicity, sincerity.

To help you do this, read the introduction to Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, in which the stoic philosopher and Roman emperor (AD 121–180) describes the character of the people who influenced his own character. His description of Maximus illustrates my meaning:

"From Maximus I learned self-government, and not to be led aside by anything; and cheerfulness in all circumstances, as well as in illness; and a just admixture in the moral character of sweetness and dignity, and to do what was set before me without complaining. I observed that everybody believed that he thought as he spoke, and that in all that he did he never had any bad intention; and he never showed amazement and surprise, and was never in a hurry, and never put off doing a thing, nor was perplexed nor dejected, nor did he ever laugh to disguise his vexation, nor, on the other hand, was he ever passionate or suspicious. He was accustomed to do acts of beneficence, and was ready to forgive, and was free from all falsehood; and he presented the appearance of a man who could not be diverted from right rather than of a man who has been improved. No man could ever think that he was despised by Maximus, or ever venture to think himself a better man. He had also the art of being humorous in an agreeable way."

— The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius (Shambhala Publications)

This week, choose five character values that you particularly admired in the leaders you described last week (one per leader). Then make those values into triggers for action in your leadership, acting on one each day. In other words, you'll have five actionable value attributes that can help define the way you lead this week.

For example, let's say that one of the leaders you described was Maximus, and you said his character included cheerfulness (that's a value!), dignity, honesty, generosity, candor, never complaining, and always being ready to forgive. You might choose "always being ready to forgive," but you could choose any one, or a combination, of the others.

Make it actionable. In other words, think of someone in your leadership sphere whom you have a gripe with, someone you may have wronged or been wronged by, and take action. Seek out that person and "be ready to forgive." See what happens. Don't expect any particular outcome; simply manifest that single character trait and let what happens happen.

Understand that I'm not saying you must "be ready to forgive" this week. That's simply one example of how to turn a character trait into action. Choose any trait. Just be sure you described that trait last week and that it's something you want to emulate. In this way, you'll begin manifesting character in your day-to-day leadership, and, equally important, you'll be conscious of that manifestation — which the vast majority of leaders aren't.

Week 3 - Getting Results Through the Development of Your Character

Since leaders do nothing more important than get results, your character and its development must lead to better results.

They don't necessarily have to be organizational results. Many leaders have used my processes in their lives outside their organizations, with teenagers or with their spouses, for example, and not simply as a "leadership" process. Who you are as a leader should be intertwined with who you are as a person. If your leadership is not your life, you diminish both your leadership and your life. So, we should consciously make our best character traits be results multipliers.

This week, choose any one of the character traits you used last week as a trigger for action. Focus on ways to use that trait to get increases in results, however you define those results.

For example, the trait "always ready to forgive" can be a results driver, because it enables you to clear the air with the people you need to help you get results. After all, if you're always ready to forgive slights and perceived slights done by or to you, you avoid blame shifting and finger pointing — both organizational results killers.

Epictetus (AD 55–135), another stoic philosopher, said, "Small-minded people habitually reproach each other for their own misfortunes. … Those who are dedicated to a life of wisdom understand that the impulse to blame someone or something is foolishness. … The more we examine our attitudes and work on ourselves, the less we are apt to be swept away by stormy emotional reactions in which we seek easy explanations for unbidden events."

Last week, I suggested that you simply let happen what happens when you manifest being always ready to forgive. This week, I suggest you do the same thing when using the trait to get results. But to use the trait to get results, you must take an extra step.

Achieving results by not trying to do so might seems like a contradiction, but what I'm about to tell you is a vital leadership lesson:

Although one's relationships in leadership are predicated on results, the most effective results-producing relationships arise when these relationships ultimately have nothing to do with results, when people respond to you not just as a leader but simply and profoundly as a human being. Get your values and your character right and the rest of leadership is a matter of details. After all, freedom isn't just in what you make happen, it's also in what you let happen.

This doesn't mean you can't use character to get results. But to do so, you must take this extra step: you must have the character trait you are acting on be a solution to your audience's needs. We examined this way of getting results in last month's e-zine, when I described the defining moment as most effective when it provides a solution to the people's needs. The same results imperative holds true with character. After all, there's a close relationship between character and the defining moment, the latter usually being character in action.

Put the character/solution into the soup of a results-challenge and then simply observe what cooks up. In other words, in a situation calling for results, act on the character trait you want to emphasize — in this case, being always ready to forgive — and observe the results.

Of course, with this trait, your effort won't work unless there are hard feelings in the air, but finding someone exhibiting such feelings shouldn't be difficult — if you're leading well. If your leadership challenges don't lead to some people feeling overburdened, you're not challenging them enough.

Take action with a group of people or an individual. You might say something like, "I know we've had hard feelings, and if there's blame to be handed out for causing them, you can look to me. But, as the first step in going after the new results, let's let bygones be bygones."

It's important to avoid setting up conditions. Saying, for example, "If I do this, I expect you to do that" is no way to manifest this character trait. Character should exist without conditions, in you and for you, regardless of outside influences such as other people's opinions. Otherwise, they wouldn't be lasting character traits, but changeable sensibilities.

When we're dealing with character and results, we can't expect to force the results. Let them grow naturally out of the interaction. It's like putting a seed crystal into a supersaturated solution. Given the proper solution and the right tension, you get an organic eruption of crystals. That's why I emphasize that you should be an observer.

This week, focus on putting the trait into action as a solution for the needs of your cause leaders in order to increase results. (For a discussion of cause-leader needs, see last December's e-zine.)

Remember, the trait of always being ready to forgive is just one of many you can work on. No matter which trait you're developing, use the process I've just described to manifest it for results.

Week 4 - Character and Deep Results

Many people go through their careers ignorant of deep results. When you look at your career from an overall perspective, deep results are the ultimate yardstick you should measure by. And character plays an important role in deep results.

Deep results differ from regular results in several ways.

· * Deep results come together over longer periods of time.

· * Deep results encompass wider circles outside your job, usually impacting your immediate family, friends, and relatives.

· * Deep results are often not conventionally successful results. They can come in the guise of failure.

· * Deep results can't be quantified. They're usually a quality of living or being.

· * Deep results are often achieved subconsciously. Usually, you become aware of them after they appear.

· * Deep results are formed in your inner life and the choices you make over the things you control, your opinions, aspirations, and desires.

· * Deep results are shaped primarily by our character.

This week, take the character trait you worked on during the past several weeks and link it to aspects of deep results. For instance, you may want to take the trait of "being always ready to forgive" to your family friends and relatives.

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SECTION TWO: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

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The Good:

Before his imprisonment by the Nazis in 1943 for his rejection of anti-Semitic legislation, Christian X, king of Denmark, demanded that a Nazi flag flying over a Danish public building be taken down. The German commandant, to whom the king protested, refused.

"Then I'll have a soldier take it down," the king said.

"That soldier will be shot," the commandant replied.

"Then do your shooting," said Christian, "for I will be the soldier!"

The commandant took the flag down.

The Bad:

Asked to explain the difference between a misfortune and a catastrophe, Benjamin Disraeli, British statesman and prime minister (1868, 1874–80), used his great parliamentary rival, William Gladstone, as an example: "If Gladstone fell into the Thames, that would be a misfortune. If he were pulled out, that would be a catastrophe!"

The Ugly:

Clarence Darrow was an intensely hardworking lawyer whose clothes were often disheveled. When asked by another lawyer about his poor appearance, he said, "I pay more money for my clothes and go to a better tailor than most lawyers. The difference is that I often sleep in mine!"

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SECTION FOUR: Points of Light

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"The importance of our character in leadership lies not only in what people see in us, but in what they see in themselves through us." — Brent Filson

"There is nothing so fatal to character as half-finished tasks." — David Lloyd George

"I begin to find that too good a character is inconvenient." — Sir Walter Scott

"Some people strengthen the society by just being the kind of people they are." — John Gardner

"Character turns obstacles into gifts." — Brent Filson

"I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character, and that therefore what one has done in the secret chamber one has some day to cry aloud on the house-tops." — Oscar Wilde

"Character is not only what we have but what we leave behind." — Brent Filson

"People with the weight of character carry, like planets, their atmospheres along with them in their orbits." — Thomas Hardy

"I've talked about myself enough. Now it's your turn to talk about me." — Professor to student

"The universe seems bankrupt as soon as we discuss the character of individuals." — Henry David Thoreau

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(SECTION FIVE: Message From Brent Filson

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One of the leadership themes I've advocated in recent years is the need for leaders to develop a "Leadership Strategy."

The May issue of The Atlantic Monthly offers a classic case of how the lack of a Leadership Strategy can torpedo not only a career but also an organization's efforts to improve.

The New York Times is the organization, and the career that of Howell Raines, a brilliant writer and editor, and the author of the Atlantic article.

In June 2001, Raines's boss, Times publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. elevated Raines to executive editor, with a mandate to improve the paper greatly from front to back — only to fire him in May 2002.

As Raines said, "I felt on the day I became executive editor and on the day I drove away from West Forty-third Street for the last time that the Times badly needs to raise the level of its journalism, and to do so quickly in order to survive and make the full transition to the digital age."

It's an absorbing story of the inside goings-on at the Times, the political and editorial infighting; but the most absorbing aspect is its cautionary tale regarding leadership.

Like almost all organizations, the one Raines tried to lead was afflicted with an entrenched status quo. "A quiet but intense factional war was going on within the Times," he writes, "between the senior editors who endorsed these improvements and the traditionalists on the newsroom floor and among mid-level managers. … Thus the Times culture, which appears so monolithic from the outside, actually consists of two distinct and parallel cultures, each fully cognizant of the other: the culture of achievement and the culture of complaint. In what amounts to a permanent version of a collegiate rush season, members of each culture woo newcomers with warm embraces and promises of protection. The two cultures are equally seductive."

Sound familiar? The cultures of most organizations have a similar makeup, of people who want to change and are willing to pay the price to change, and people who want to maintain the status quo.

The way to drive change is through a Leadership Strategy. Raines had a great operational strategy for improving the Times, a strategy that was fully supported by his boss. But because he neglected a Leadership Strategy, he ultimately failed to implement the business strategy. Hence the status quo at the Times turned on him and, using the pretext of the forced resignation of Jayson Blair, who had fabricated facts and quotations in scores of stories, forced Sulzberger to fire him.

As I said in the January issue of this e-zine, which was devoted to how to develop and execute such a Leadership Strategy, "Whereas an operational strategy seeks to marshal an organization's functions around central, organizing concepts, a leadership strategy seeks to obtain, organize, and direct the heartfelt commitment of the people who must carry out the operational strategy.

The business strategy is the sail, the Leadership Strategy the ballast. Without a Leadership Strategy, most business strategies capsize."

I suggest you read the Atlantic article in tandem with my January issue. You might find that if Raines had used a classic Leadership Strategy, he would still be at the Times, driving the change he and Sulzberger wanted, despite the Jayson Blair fiasco.

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SECTION SIX: News

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Brent's latest book, The Leadership Talk: The Greatest Leadership Tool, will go on sale May 26. Order by calling: 800-403-5368. Mention that you heard about it in the ezine and you will receive The Leadership Talk wallet card and, if you purchase the hardcover book, you'll also receive free Brent Filson's book, 101 Ways To Give Great Leadership Talks.

Brent has been interviewed on a number of radio shows. He's aiming for at least 150 radio and TV interviews before the fall election. If you're interested in having him on your show or at your meeting, go to the Action Leadership website and click on either the "Meeting Planner" button or the "Press Room" button.

The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. is putting together a CD collection of interviews with leaders, entitled the "Leaders Speak Series." It will begin this month and can be found on the Action Leadership website. Click on "Leaders Speak CD Series." Brent says, "I want to interview leaders from a broad spectrum of endeavor. Don't be surprised to find landscape contractors, gang leaders, horse trainers, and sports coaches, as well as business and political leaders. Almost everyone practices leadership, and we'll bring it to you on the CDs in all the richness of human relationships." For more information, call the F.L.G. headquarters: 413-458-4403 or email Brent at brent@actionleadership.com

QuickSpeech is up and running. If you have a speech to give, go to the "QuickSpeech" button at www.actionleadership.com and download the template. Fill in the blanks, and you'll have a powerful speech. QuickSpeech is the popular supplement to Brent's book, Executive Speeches, 51 CEOs Tell You How To Do Yours. QuickSpeech has sold thousands of copies, but now it is available to you for free. Remember, the speech is not an end in and of itself but the gateway to The Leadership Talk. Learn to give speeches Brent Filson's way and you'll be better grounded to give Leadership Talks later on.

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