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Forbes
22-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Seeing How Character Eats Culture For Breakfast
Why has it been so difficult for organizations to realize the aspirational culture they seek? In a recently published article, 'Diagnosing and Implementing a Character-Based Culture,' Bill Furlong, Corey Crossan, and I describe four vexing challenges organizations encounter when attempting to define, shape, measure, and sustain an aspirational culture. Simply put, seeing these obstacles through the lens of character not only diminishes the 'fog' of culture, it provides insights, approaches and tools to intelligently and intentionally develop the culture organizations need to enable their chosen strategy. Seeing and understanding the influence of character is akin to putting on a set of glasses to see culture more clearly. Roughly speaking, 90% of what every organization seeks in their aspirational culture is represented in the middle column of Table 1. The other 10% is the nuance that comes from strategy, such as having a service or safety culture. The problem is that the realized culture of most organizations is represented by the left- and right-hand columns. In our article we describe how the micro-foundations of character can operate in under-weighted and over-weighted states, undermining the aspirational culture that most organizations seek. Aspirational culture, regardless of strategy, can be directly tied to the strength of character of people, particularly the leaders. Essentially, culture reflects character. Extensive research at the Ivey Business School and around the globe has brought clarity to what character is, how to assess and develop it, and embed it in organizational practices. When it comes to culture, Table 1 captures the essence of how culture reflects the dimensions of character as under-weighted, strong, or over-weighted. Table 1 - Character and Culture Crossan & Crossan, 2021 Individuals can readily identify the statements that best describe the culture of their unit or organization. Most find themselves on the left 'under-weighted' column, which is the aggregation of deficiencies in a dimension of character, and/or the right 'over-weighted' column, which is an aggregation of excess. The over-weighted column merits explanation. It means that individuals in the organization have significant strength in a dimension, such as accountability, but that strength is not supported sufficiently by other dimensions, leading to 'difficulty delegating; obsessive and controlling; little room for learning from failures.' Without exception, our workshops reveal that individuals would be delighted if their culture reflected the 11 statements in the middle 'strong' column, which is why aspirational culture is founded on character. People grasp the logic that these descriptors mirror a similar set of descriptors at the individual level, which is when the proverbial lightbulb goes on. They realize that culture reflects their character. And if they want to transform culture, they need to strengthen their character. For example, an executive with strong accountability realized that because his temperance and humility were weaker, his accountability was manifesting in the over-weighted excess state, characterized by being obsessive, controlling, burdened, and unable to delegate. He grasped that his behaviors were fostering weaknesses in accountability among his subordinates, causing them to become less accountable. All of this leading to behaviors in the left and right-hand columns of the table. Although there are many cultural diagnostics, often pointing to some of the behaviors in Table 1, the lack of a coherent understanding of the architecture of character and how to develop it has crippled organizations as they seek to diagnose and transform culture. Building on the analogy of the glasses, the visual acuity associated with character arises through its development, not simply reading about it. The challenge with character is that most of us think we have clarity. However, there is significant danger in believing we have character covered, only to discover that we have substantial blind spots. It is this lack of clarity that leads to the left- and right-hand column behaviors. As a sort of vision check to help identify character blind spots, Corey Crossan and I created the Character Quotient (CQ) questions in my Forbes article, 'From Good to Great: 10 Ways to Elevate Your Character Quotient.' The QC score comprises three categories related to the 10 questions: awareness, development, and application. A high QC means that a person is aware of the interconnected dimensions of character and how they can operate in a deficient and excess state, they can observe and identify that in themselves and others, they have an evidence-based daily habit development program to strengthen their character (we call it going to the character gym), and they can confidently apply character to areas such as selection, performance management and culture transformation. Although cultivating a high QC score is a work in progress (mine is 87% even though I have worked in this space for 15 years), it provides a reasonable measure of the confidence we can place that we understand character, are actively developing it, and applying it in our organizations. There is clear evidence-based science about what character is and how to develop it, which becomes the solid foundation on which to engage the journey of individual development, taking into account the recursive relationship between the individual and their context. A great example of this is revealed in the Virtuosity Podcast between Corey Crossan and Dr. Christian Breede, a Research Analyst with the Department of National Defence, working at the Canadian Defence Academy. In the podcast, he describes his journey of character development and how it manifests in his personal and professional life. He describes that he has cultivated a better understanding of what character is, how to develop it and apply it in his context. In the podcast, Breede reflects on character in combat, saying 'Character work is not to be started in the attack position. You've got to do it before…You gotta have the sets and reps done beforehand so that when you're in those positions of having to make a quick decision, you can rely on your strength of character – your judgment is strong and you're going to make the right call.' With clarity about what character is, how it can operate in deficient and excess states, and efforts to develop it, individual character scales to organization culture. It does so through the micro-moments of conversations and actions, which reflect and shape character. This is the essence of the famous quote by Gandhi: 'You must be the change you want to see in the world.' With great respect, I would suggest we consider that the word 'be' is best understood as 'become.' When it comes to character, we are always becoming someone with more or less courage, humanity, humility, drive, and so on. The development of character involves the intentional practice of strengthening one's character, with the ultimate test being whether it holds up in various contexts, including organizational reward systems that could undermine character-based judgment, under time pressure, and adversity. This was the argument I made in my Forbes article 'Strategic Resilience and Agility: 4 Ways to Thrive in a Chaotic World.' The development of character underpins organizational agility, which underpins strategic agility. Will leaders navigate today's generational challenges of economic upheaval, geopolitical volatility and accelerating climate change through doubling down on technical or management competencies alone? Of course not. Success, or lack thereof, will reflect our leaders' judgment and decision-making, which is rooted in leaders' character. A good test of strength of character vis-a vis context is whether individuals blame the organization or the broader system for their decisions and actions. A classic example is blaming compensation and reward systems, or blaming the pressure for performance, whether that be from capital markets or other mechanisms. Although we can't ignore these pressures and influences, character-based judgment brings the needed 'practical wisdom' to operate in complex scenarios without resorting to being a victim of them. Furthermore, while today's extraordinary context challenges character, individuals with strong character-based judgment have the potential to shape that context. An example of this is how Sonja Coté from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) embraced the opportunity to elevate character alongside competence in their executive hiring practices. Then, when the pandemic arrived in 2020, CRA was capable of delivering emergency financial relief to millions of Canadians amid an unprecedented health crisis, one of the first signs that the pandemic could indeed be managed. There is a clear case that the development of character is a critical underpinning of culture, but there is so much more. Seeing, experiencing, and applying the development of character to culture will open the door for seeing many more possibilities, both personally and professionally. Regardless of the challenge or opportunity, the foundation of character will remain critical. The logic for why character is indispensable is clear, as is the evidence. In 2015, Fred Kiel wrote the book 'Return on Character: The Real Reason Leaders and Their Organizations Win,' paving the way for extensive empirical work exposing how the foundations of character influence a variety of key performance indicators. In 'Cracking the Code: Leader Character Development for Competitive Advantage,' Corey Crossan, Bill Furlong, and I share the extensive research conducted at the Ivey Business School, which demonstrates a correlation between character and leader effectiveness, resilience, well-being, promotional potential, and numerous other key performance indicators. The famous saying 'all roads lead to Rome' aptly describes character. Think of it as the bedrock, the DNA, or the cornerstone of many things, including culture. Essentially, wherever competence resides, character belongs. The greater the competence, the more need for character to harness it. Investments in character development yield benefits for cultural transformation, as well as numerous other benefits related to well-being and sustained excellence. An example of this is revealed in the article my co-authors and I published in IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management 'Leader Character in Engineering Projects: A Case Study of Character Activation, Contagion, and Embeddedness,' where we describe the year-long activities of a University Formula Race team, revealing how character can change how competencies are enacted. The bottom line is that character development is indispensable and should be the first point of consideration, given its foundational influence. It not only eats culture for breakfast, but virtually everything that matters to us personally and professionally.
Forbes
26-03-2025
- General
- Forbes
From Good To Great: 10 Ways To Elevate Your Character Quotient
exploring potential Who doesn't think they have good character? In workshops I have done worldwide, most people believe they have good character and are often satisfied that character is covered if they have 'good' values individually and organizationally. I recognize that mindset because it is precisely how I felt when my colleagues and I started to respond to a leadership gap identified in our 'Leadership on Trial' study after the 2008 global financial crisis. In focus groups conducted in North America, Europe, and Asia, leaders concluded that the failures of judgment were more about character than competence. However, they debated what character is and whether it could be developed. As we set out to solve their debates, I launched a course in our MBA program designed to develop character. The minimal resources available for developing character were associated with values and ethics. I soon discovered that character development was so much more. The science-based research and practical toolkit to assess, develop, and embed character in organizations is now plentiful, as my colleagues and I have described in many publications, including our book The Character Compass: Transforming Leadership for the 21st Century. Despite clear evidence of the importance of elevating character alongside competence for well-being, judgment, and sustained excellence, there remains a gap between what is possible and necessary and what we currently do in education and practice. As I wrote in a recent Forbes article, Addressing the Crisis of Leadership Character, there is a pressing need to address the gap. The Character Quotient questions offer a pulse check to assess the gap between a person/organization's current state and its potential. This is not an assessment of the person's character but rather a strategic assessment of what it takes to embrace character leadership fully. My collaborators and I have worked diligently over the last 15 years, building on the extensive foundation in philosophy, psychology, sociology, and education to bridge theory and practice on leader character. We bring science-based and practical approaches to elevating character alongside competence in higher education and organizations. To provide a pulse check on the degree to which you are realizing the full potential of leader character, I developed the following questions with Dr. Corey Crossan, who did her PhD in Exercise Science focusing on character development. She is a teaching and research fellow at the University of Oxford – Oxford Character Project. An essential perspective that Corey brought from exercise science was treating leader character as habit development, which is a paradigm shift in leadership development. Although we use the leader character framework shown in Figure 1 and the associated toolkit we developed with many collaborators, as described in Cracking the Code: Leader Character Development for Competitive Advantage, the same questions could apply using a different science-based character framework like the Values in Action Inventory. Each of the following questions can be examined using a basic Likert scale from zero to 10, with zero being 'not at all,' 5 being 'somewhat,' and 10 being 'always.' For these questions, consider using the framework shown in Figure 1. The term dimensions in question 1 refers to the 11 circles; the behaviors are the smaller text within the circles. For reference, I have added Table 1 of deficient and excess vices so you can better understand what underpins question 2. A cornerstone of character is that any virtue can manifest in a deficient or excess state, which is often overlooked. We wanted to keep this pulse check to 10 questions, so we have taken the liberty of combining some points, such as referring to self and others in questions 1 and 2. You may find you are strong in one aspect and weaker in another, so consider that when responding. Figure 1 - Leader Character Framework Before you start, don't get discouraged if you score very low on any question, particularly if you are new to leader character. Reflecting on my journey, I would have been in the zero to two range on most questions when I started. Fortunately, we have a lot of resources and tools to help people improve these scores. The benefits of doing so are extensive, as research at the Ivey Business School has revealed, including a 14% increase in leader effectiveness when moving from weak to strong character. Awareness 1. I can observe and identify the character dimensions in myself and others (e.g., using the Leader Character Framework). 2. I can observe and identify the deficient and excess vice states of the behaviors underpinning the dimensions in myself and others (e.g., using the Virtues & Vices Index). 3. I am aware of how my character influences my well-being and performance. 4. I can make a strong case for why character matters to well-being and performance. Development 5. I have a daily character development program targeting my underdeveloped behaviors. 6. My character development is informed by evidence-based science on character development (e.g., using the Seven Strategies for Character Development, Five Stages of Character Development). 7. I champion character at every opportunity (e.g., personal and professional conversations, social media). 8. My character is not conditional on my context (e.g., personal/professional, time pressure, reward systems, organization culture). Application in Organizations 9. If asked to select or promote someone based on their character, I could do it effectively. 10. I actively work to embed character in my context (e.g., training and development, human resource practices, organization culture, risk management, strategy). Once you have assessed yourself, add your score to give yourself a percentage out of 100. To help you put your score in perspective, mine is 89%, and Corey's is 82%. Given that we do this work every day and have done so for 15 years, it may help put your score in perspective. If you have a high score, you may be able to be more constructively critical in considering development opportunities. If your score is low, this is actually fantastic news! You have an excellent opportunity to develop and incorporate character into your personal and professional life that will be transformative. When we sought feedback from collaborators who have subject matter expertise and work in leadership character, we received many lower scores, which is understandable. Like exercise and nutrition, many of us know what we need to do, but whether we practice it is the actual test. If you have a low score, take it as an indicator of your potential to help motivate you instead of a critique of your character. Reflecting on my score when I started, I would have been hard-pressed to score above 20. Dixon Ward, the Vice-President of the Okanagan Hockey Group (OHG), agreed to share his score of 60% and his insights. OHG has operated hockey camps in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Japan, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, England, Scotland, and Denmark. The Okanagan Hockey Academy was established in 2002 as the first hockey-specific sport school recognized by Hockey Canada. Currently, OHG operates five Academies around North America and Europe, developing over 500 students/athletes annually. Dixon and his team undertook a year-long program designed to elevate character alongside competence in their operations. He shared that before the program, he thought about character often, but on the surface level, and would have scored between 25-30% on the questions. His scores and insights provide a good benchmark for what is possible with a commitment to character. Below, I provide my score, followed by Dixon's score in brackets. I provide insights about the scores and how you can work to improve your score. Fortunately, we have made great strides since 2008 to help you move along the learning curve more efficiently and effectively. Identifying character in oneself and others is a cornerstone of awareness. It helps you see aspects of character that you may have neglected. Although I practice observing and identifying character daily, I didn't score a 10 because even though I practice it, I realize there is ongoing learning and development, providing room for improvement. The more I learn, the more I realize there is to learn. Dixon remarked that he finds it much easier to identify character when applying it more purposefully, saying that 'every dimension becomes infinitely more recognizable.' If this is an area of deficiency for you, there are many resources to learn about character and begin practicing seeing it in yourself and others. A book I co-authored with Gerard Seijts and Jeffrey Gandz called Developing Leadership Character walks through each character dimension and their corresponding behaviors. Also, you could check out the Question of Character Podcast (QC) Episodes 1 and 2. Bill Furlong invited me to work with him on the podcast series to provide readily available resources on leader character, its development, and its application in organizations. The beauty of observing and identifying character is that it is everywhere. Many people say that you can't unsee it once you see it. It becomes the basis for how you understand people. It is particularly valuable in something we call 'behavioral forecasting,' where once you understand a person's character, you can predict your own judgment and the judgment of others, equipping you to strengthen your character to close the gap on the judgment you wish to exercise. And you can help support others in their character development. I practice observing and identifying deficient and excess states in myself and others daily. Like question 1, the more I do this, the more I realize there is to learn. Dixon remarked that 'the vices and virtues get muddy for me.' That is not surprising, as sorting through differences takes consistent effort over time and is one of the more difficult areas. Table 1 is a great resource, and many people use it as a roadmap to consider where they stand, when, and why. The middle column is like being on a balance beam; knowing whether your lean is one side or another - deficient or excess - is essential for development. For example, in the case of being appreciative, it would be rare for me to be on the excess side of 'awe-struck.' When exercising being appreciative, I am working to shift my 'unthankful' behavior to becoming more appreciative. In contrast, I am very decisive and rarely experience an indecisive deficient state. To ensure my strength in being decisive does not manifest to others as being 'impulsive,' I need to strengthen other character dimensions to support it, and importantly, that strength needs to be seen by others. If they don't observe my strengths in collaboration, humanity, humility, and temperance, my decisiveness could easily be viewed as 'impulsive.' Table 1 is a good start to becoming more aware of deficiencies and excesses. Corey regularly provides LinkedIn and Instagram posts, guiding people through reflections on each dimension. While my colleagues and I have extensively examined the relationship between character, well-being, and performance, I continually discover how it manifests for me. I can corroborate Dixon's score of 9. He is strongly committed to character because he understands how it influences performance and well-being. The Virtuosity Chronicles with Dixon Ward relays his insights. When we were getting feedback from subject matter experts on the questions, one person pointed out that they scored themselves lower because they started to discover the reverse relationship that if they didn't perform, their character would suffer, for example, in losing confidence, patience, or calm. The Cracking the Character Code article and the Character Compass book provide a good overview of the connections. Also, check out QC Episodes 4, 7, and 11. My responses to the first three questions prepared me well for this question. Because I live and breathe character, I can easily articulate its benefits. It is also why Dixon scored so high. He described, 'I am acutely aware of the impact character has on myself.' Although the Cracking the Code article explains the benefits, bringing life examples of how character enables your well-being and performance enables others to understand how and why character matters. QC Episode 13 is a helpful resource. Using the Virtuosity mobile application, which is science-based, for my daily character development ensures my score is strong. Corey and I designed the mobile application to embed everything we know about character and its development in a system equivalent to 'going to the character gym,' as we describe in QC Episode 16. Before using the mobile application, I would have tried to imagine exercises focusing on character dimensions and keep them at the top of my mind daily. This was extremely hard, and I lacked the systems to support my development. Corey and I are big fans of James Clear and his work on habit development. He says, 'You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.' The tricky part is that it is not just any system, but a science-based, robust system that enables character habit development. Dixon scored himself a two on his daily development program, indicating that he is very inconsistent. He scored higher on being informed by an evidence-based science of habit development, crediting his work with Virtuosity. As a former professional hockey player, Dixon embraced the possibility of a character gym because he understood the parallels associated with exercise and nutrition in sports. As such, I observed he was likely more aware of the potential, thus yielding lower scores. Because habit development is a new frontier in leadership development, there is a long way to go to consider implementing habit development systems in higher education and organizations. Although Corey and I have embedded everything we know in the mobile application and a workbook for those less inclined to technology, developing the subject matter expertise to address questions five and six may be the most formidable challenge for individuals and organizations. Although I have dedicated the last 15 years to research and practice in leader character development, it was not until the last two years that I took greater accountability to champion leader character in mediums such as Forbes and LinkedIn. Corey and I felt it was critical to include this question because the lack of attention to character needs a voice. It needs champions of character who actively seek to illuminate character in daily practice. Although Dixon scored himself a 5, more character champions like him would go a long way. For example, he responded to my invitation for this article without reservation and shared his story in the Virtuosity chronicles. I witnessed him freely sharing his insights and commitments with his team as they worked together to learn about character. Check out QC Episode 12 with John Ossowski, former President of Canada Border Services Agency to learn about another champion of character. In the episode, he says, 'Not a day goes by when we are not talking about character.' This was a hard one for me and Dixon. The science behind character development, which is embedded in the mobile application, is that we move through five stages: Discovering character, activating character, strengthening character, connecting character (learning how one dimension relies on others), and sustaining character (across contexts). It is this last stage that is very difficult. How does our character hold up under different contexts, such as time pressure, lack of sleep, rewards and incentives that could undermine it, social pressures, etc.? Fortunately, I have the mobile application that guides me through different contexts to become more aware of how my character is stressed. Without that, you can consider how different your character is personally, professionally, and in other contexts. The simple idea is that your strength of character should not be conditional on the context, but instead, you rely on that strength of character to guide your judgment in different contexts. This is what Aristotle described as practical wisdom. QC Episode 3 is a great resource. Corey and I decided to include a question on selection since it is an area that we are frequently asked about. We believe it is a strategic advantage for organizations that can select and promote based on character, not just competence. Dixon described that he sees this as a daily part of his process, so he applies it regularly. Although I have conducted several hundred character-based interviews, the more I do, the more I discover there is to learn. I have written two articles about character interviews, with my most recent one in MIT Sloan Management Review, 'Make Character Count in Hiring and Promoting.' QC Episode 6, which describes how the Canada Revenue Agency is embedding leader character into executive selection, is a great resource. A key conclusion from this work is that being able to select and promote on character depends on the foundation arising from strong responses to the prior questions. The more you can observe and identify character in yourself and others and are actively working to develop it, the better you can select and promote based on character. This was my nemesis question. I love that Dixon scored higher than me on this, and rightly so. As he described, all of their programming takes character into account. Corey and I realized when we put the questions together that although we spend a lot of time in training and development within our organizations and helping others embed character in their HR practices and strategy, we both could do more for our organizations. For example, I could spend more time helping my organization employ character-based selection. We developed a Leader Character Certification Program offered through the Ivey Business School that has graduated over 100 subject matter experts equipped to address all areas we identified in the character quotient questions. When we sought feedback on the questions, the feedback was consistent, and the pulse check reminded them of their strengths and weaknesses, as it did for Corey and me. QC Episodes 5, 10, and 14 address how character can be applied in organizations and specifically in culture and conduct. In summary, we hope the Character Quotient can be used as a pulse check on what is needed and possible to elevate character alongside competence in higher education and organizations. Corey and I felt compelled to create the pulse check because we have witnessed so many individuals operating under the misconception that they have character covered. However, we know the significant gap must be filled to address the challenges and opportunities we all face personally, professionally, and globally. Although we often hear the lament that people don't have enough time to consider one more thing in their lives, we offer that when it comes to character, we are always becoming something while we are busy doing – our thoughts, words, and actions become our habits and character. Character is a meta-habit guiding all other habits. Instead of letting it just happen to us, we need to bring intentionality to awareness, development, and application. With the many resources in place, it is time to move beyond talking about character to real action, demonstrating a commitment to character leadership. Table 1 - Virtues and Vices Index
