Are we really surprised to find a link between character and performance?

  1. Share
0 0

In the 2018 LCP Global Leadership Survey, we asked 134 Board Chairs, CEOs, executives and senior leaders to respond to a short survey exploring their thoughts on this topic.

Apart from my own leadership experiences in seeing the importance of this relationship over the last 25 years, I have extensively researched this topic since 2010 and am still amazed that many do not believe there is a link between character and performance. There is often an interesting psychology behind this, hidden by the economic justification for expediency in delivering short-term results without regard for the damage this can do to the credibility and performance of a brand over time.

For now, I merely want to highlight some of the preliminary insights from our analysis. From the eighty respondents, 95 percent agreed that there is a link between the integrity of the leadership team and the success of the business. 5 percent disagreed. 

We next asked them how they would describe this link?

The three most dominant themes describing this link were:

  1. Great values don’t guarantee immediate success. However, there was acknowledgement that the best people thrive in an environment where there is a commitment to strong values. In the short-term it affects the recruitment and retention of great talent; longer-term, the relationship between values and success becomes more pronounced.
  2. People want to do business with organizations and people they can trust — trust is the currency through which a business can succeed, and it is clearly much more than a mere transaction.
  3. Closely related to the above, there was a clear belief that business success should be measured beyond monetary value.

What's the bottom-line?

Building resilient character is an indispensable quality for any business, and without it, many corporate collapses and leadership failures provide evidence of how catastrophic the results can be.

Here at LCP Global we are passionate about putting character high on the agenda for businesses that want to achieve great results without having to compromise their integrity. Building Resilient Character is one of the 5 Leadership Anchors™ LCP Global presents as part of a systematic and strategic approach to increasing leadership capacity.

Community tags

This content has 0 tags that match your profile.

Comments

To leave a comment, login or sign up.

Related Content

0
What do leaders do when their values are in conflict with the organizations they lead?
While 95 percent of the eighty Board Chairs, CEOs, executives and senior leaders who responded to LCP's 2018 Global Leadership Survey agreed there is a link between character and performance, we asked them how they responded when there was a conflict between their own personal values and those of the organization? They are grouped into three dominant themes: 1. Resignation 27 percent resigned. They believed they were not able to influence a positive change in ethical behavior or could not do it because of how deeply entrenched some of the issues were. In nearly all cases, resignation only came after significant stress due to the efforts of those leaders who had sought to rectify things. What is alarming is, these were not middle managers. Most sit on executive teams or Boards. 2. ‘Difference’ or ‘violation’? Most considered it normal that in many organizations there would be a diversity of values held by those working in them. This would inevitably lead to disagreements on business practices and standards of behavior . It was also widely accepted that for those seeking leadership roles, choosing to work for a particular business can be due to a strong resonance with the core values of that business. The conflict occurs when it becomes clear there is a difference between the values the organisation says are important, and when in practical terms they are contradicted (internally or publicly). Even for those who resigned their leadership role believed that they could work in organizations where their values differed; not when there was a clear violation of their own deeply held values. 3. What made the difference to those who remained? While some leaders decided to leave the organization to explore opportunities more fully aligned with their values, there were those who stayed. They felt they could “work within the conflict”. Paramount to this decision was the belief that they could continue to respectfully model the values that were important to them while influencing a positive change in the culture. However, to succeed in this, it was important that they had a clear set of values considered to be non-negotiable. What's the bottom-line? Building a culture around a set of non-negotiable values is an integral part of aligning the brand internally and externally. It not only ensures greater success longer-term, but attracts and retains leaders of high integrity and competency organisations can’t afford to overlook.    Here at LCP Global we are passionate about putting character high on the agenda for businesses that want to achieve great results without having to compromise their integrity. Building Resilient Character is one of the 5 Leadership Anchors™. If you would like a copy of the full report once it is available, please email your details to [email protected].
0
Ancient wisdom affirms the importance of character to leadership
All of us, at some point, have been frustrated at the ineptitude of some leaders, especially when their actions reveal an attitude of ‘what’s in it for me?’, or when self-preservation is clearly the goal no matter how it affects others. A discussion on character, or values, may not be as riveting as the latest sales techniques, marketing strategies, or innovative product ideas. However, early Greek thought suggests it is critical for both individual and corporate success. Below are six things leaders need to hold in careful tension as they contemplate the relationship between their character and how it is expressed through their leadership The notion of individual responsibility and responsibility to the wider community A person’s experience of truth and the existence of an objective, universal morality shared by others The presence of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards Pursuing an ethic of virtue that is attainable and yet never fully achieved Being virtuous and doing virtuous acts What can be taught or learned and what must come, as Socrates says, from “divine dispensation” because we are not capable of achieving the ideal of virtue from a position that is quickly corrupted by our self-interest. Like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 AD) believed our intellect gives us the ability to choose virtue or vice, and that it is ultimately the gift of grace that enables us to achieve ‘greater’ goals in place of self-centered ones (Nullens and Michener, 2010, 124)[i]. This is founded on his belief that our “mind is guided naturally by wisdom and supernaturally by faith” (Nullens and Michener, 2010, 125) [i]. In the West, this worldview is not an easy thing to grasp. We compartmentalize the physical from the spiritual, our intellect from our emotions, our work life from our personal life and our public life from our private life. Character, however, permeates all of them.   What’s the bottom-line? A lack of character in one area of a leader’s life quickly infects other areas, and when this happens, it is understandable that people begin to lose faith in their leaders. Here are some questions for further reflection: What would it look like if my life was totally congruent with my values? How would I describe my personal brand? Is it consistent with my organization’s brand, or are they in conflict? What steps can I take to align them? How do my values ground me, and help me to sustain a high level of performance and focus on what is important?   [i] Patrick Nullens and Ronald T. Michener. (2010). The Matrix of Christian Ethics: Integrating Philosophy and Moral Theology in a Postmodern Context. Colorado Springs, CO: Paternoster Publishing.