Are You a Character-Driven Leader?

In the various areas of your life in which you are a leader, what drives you?

In the comments of a recent post, alert reader Valerie introduced me to the concept of character-driven leadership. The idea is for leaders to consistently seek to embody and improve 11 different areas of their character. This type of leader is driven by traits like accountability, collaboration, and humility, not ego, fame, or fortune.

Here are those 11 characteristics as presented by Ivey Institute and the book Developing Leadership Character:

I wanted to share this today because (a) I love this model of leadership, (b) I think every leader–including myself–can improve in all of these traits, and (c) I’m enamored by any model of leadership that demonstrates the power of love and service.

In the spirit of vulnerability, here are the top 3 traits for which I’d like to improve (though I absolutely see areas of improvement in every category):

1. Temperance: I really struggle with patience. I’m typically quick to act, quick to respond, quick to implement a new idea–it’s one of the reasons I like how nimble a small company like Stonemaier Games is. But sometimes an unintended byproduct of speed is a decrease in quality, which isn’t the best way to serve our customers. Also, some things just take time–that’s the nature of creating a product, especially one that can be produced and sold in the tens of thousands year after year.
2. Courage: I am generally risk averse. The future is a nebulous blob of uncertainty in my mind, and I worry about worst-case scenarios (while still hoping and aiming for the best). Sometimes this may lead to some missed opportunities; sometimes it also means we dodge a bullet. Finding that balance is something I struggle with.
3. Humanity: I strongly believe in second chances and that I should judge people by who they are today, not by the mistakes of their distant past. But I have a hard time letting go of feelings towards those who have actively sought to damage Stonemaier Games (especially with misinformation) or taken advantage of us. I’d like to better extend to them the same level of grace that I hope would be extended to me after making a mistake but not repeating it.

It’s heavy to look at each of these traits and admit that I have a lot of room for growth so I can better serve our customers, my coworkers, and myself! But I really like this rubric, and I’d love to hear your thoughts if it resonates with you too.

PS. Today I had planned to write a post about the current state of worldwide fulfillment, only realize that I wrote the 2024 version of the post just over a month ago!

Also read:

• Creation Is Leadership
• 3 Tenets of Crowdfunding Leadership
• The Bear and Professional Development
• If Tomorrow You Became the President of Stonemaier Games, What Would You Do?

If you gain value from the 100 articles Jamey publishes on this blog each year, please consider championing this content! You can also listen to posts like this in the audio version of the blog.

• Tweet