Don’t confuse character with reputation. Abraham Lincoln said, ‘Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.’ Some people spend too much time worrying about the shadow and too little about the tree. Reputation is fragile; character endures.
Good character is ethics in action; it’s the ability to summon the moral strength to do the right thing even when it may cost more than we want to pay.
People of character do the right thing even if no one is looking; they live up to their values even when there is no advantage to do so.
Finally, no one is born with good character. It’s something we all have to build and protect day by day, decision by decision.”
- Michael Josephson
Leadership
Character Casts Reputation
No Man is Always Right
“Loneliness is the inescapable lot of a man holding such a job. Subordinates can advise, urge, help, and pray – but only one man in his own mind and heart can decide, “Do we or do we not?” The stakes are always high, and the penalties are expressed in terms of loss of life or major or minor disasters to the nation. No man can always be right. So the struggle is to do one’s best, to keep the brain and conscience clear; never to be swayed by unworthy motives or inconsequential reasons, but…to do one’s duty. It is not always easy.”
- Dwight D. Eisenhower to his wife Mamie February 15, 1943.
Beware
Beware of your thoughts, they become your words.
Beware of your words, they become your actions.
Beware of your actions, they become your habits.
Beware of your habits, they become your character.
Beware of your character, it becomes your destiny.
- Unknown
Sin Through Weakness and Goodness
Bad and mediocre people are tempted to sin by their own habitual weaknesses. The earlier lies or thefts or adulteries make the next one that much easier to contemplate. Having already cut so many corners, the thinking goes, what’s one more here or there? Why even aspire to virtues that you probably won’t achieve, when it’s easier to remain the sinner that you already know yourself to be?
But good, heroic people are led into temptation by their very goodness – by the illusion, common to those who have done important deeds, that they have higher responsibilities than the ordinary run of humankind. It’s precisely in the service to these supposed higher responsibilities that they often let more basic ones slip away. – Ross Douthat, New York Times, November 13, 2011
The Grain on Which we Live
It’s remarkable that men should be so arrogant and secure when there are so many, indeed countless, evidences around us to suggest that we ought to be humble. The hour of our death is uncertain. The grain on which we live is not in our hands. Neither the sun nor the air, on which our life depends, lies in our power, and we have no control over our sleeping and waking. I shall say nothing of spiritual things, such as private and public sins which press upon us. Yet our hearts are as hard as steel and pay no attention to such evidence - Martin Luther, 1483-1546
Stand Where You Feel Led
In the end, that is what we all must do. Stand where we feel led. Stand straight, stand tall, and try hard to remember that other folks might be led to stand elsewhere.” Phillip Gulley
Real Leadership
“We need to believe in ourselves and our future but not to believe that life is easy. Life is painful and rain falls on the just. Leaders must help us see failure and frustration not as a reason to doubt ourselves but a reason to strengthen resolve…Don’t pray for the day we finally solve our problems. Pray that we have freedom to continue working on the problems the future will never cease to throw at us.”John W. Garner On Leadership (New York Free Press 1993), 195, xii
Basic Army Leadership
This post is less about army leadership and more about finding a better way to share content. The embedded presentation is hosted on www.slideshare.net.
Look at Me
I’ve never felt okay ignoring people who are putting themselves out there for my protection. Several airplane flights ago I gave in tomy unease and started watching the flight attendants during their safety brief. Along the way I began noticing something peculiar…they never make eye contact.
This was confirmed when during a very rare first class flight (I’m usually in coach) I was clearly the only one among the 16 passengers watching. The attendant acted like a husband who wants to make sure his wife knows he is not looking at the attractive girl walking by. He looked in every direction but mine. Read more →