Developing the Leader Within You 2.0: Character

The words that come to mind when I think of character are kindness, honesty, authenticity, courageous, and a general sense of someone who does the right thing, even when nobody is looking.

How do you define Character?

In John's book, he states that there are 4 dimensions to character including:

1. Authenticity
2. Self-management
3. Humility
4. Courage

He defines these 4 areas pretty well and then offers ways you can develop a good character that all good leaders should emulate (see pictures).

I think this blog post will focus on what I see as practical ways to develop character and how I can relate to these areas.

1. Embrace Good Values- What are your personal values? Write them down and go through the process of thinking through what you will stand for as a person. 
• Here are a few of my own personal values:
• Family- I will always love and protect my family and be there for them no matter what
• Friends - I will love my friends, boost them up, never judge them, provide honest information to them when needed, offer a shoulder to cry on
• Faith- Put God above all and know there is a better place after death
• Love- I strive to love all people (including those who do wrong against me), animals, and living things, no matter how small or big. 
• Work/Life- always give 100%, always do the best I can do, keep going even if I make mistakes, fail, or fall down... just keep getting back up
• Integrity- I promise to do the right thing even when nobody is watching...
2. Practice Self-Leadership- I looove this one: Doing the right thing even when you don't want to do it and not doing the wrong thing even when you do want to do it.  So many temptations out there to do the wrong thing because the wrong thing is sometimes FUN, LOL... 
• John calls this part, managing the decision after I've already made it. When you face a difficult moment, your job is to follow through on the decision you've made. This is so hard!! Come on!! But, if you have your values set, you already made the decision on what you will and will not do.
3. Value People- Yes!! Value People!!
• "By placing others first, you take the focus off yourself and therefore have a more difficult time being selfish. THAT BUILDS YOUR CHARACTER!!!" John did not have that all in caps, but I did it because it is so important for people to build character these days.  You look at anyone with a good character and you think wow- he just saved all those lives, or she just raised all this money for needy families, or he just ran a marathon to end poverty... gee, these folks are amazing characters and LEADERS!! They were all self-less too!

I hope you enjoyed learning more about character and I hope this helps someone, somewhere understand what it takes to build character and to be a true leader!

Stay tuned for the next few chapters!!