Character – Be the change YOU want to see in the world

02 Apr Character – Be the change YOU want to see in the world

One of my favourite film lines of all time is: “Just because you are a character it doesn’t mean you have character”, the words of Winston Wolfe, excellently played by Harvey Keitel in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.

Wolfe – a gangland associated ‘cleaner’ of murky situations – would know as an unfazed character of calm and experience if not exactly one who is operating in a wholesome profession.

When we think of ‘a’ character as opposed to someone ‘with’ character, we usually think of a Del Boy-esque ducker and diver with  questionable ethics – not someone we’d readily choose to buy a used motor from.

People ‘with’ character on the other hand, are wholly trustworthy. Indeed, more than trust, they effuse authority and integrity.

A 2015 report by leadership consultancy KRW International for Harvard Business School among employees at Fortune 500 businesses identified the top four characteristics of the managers they respected most as integrity, responsibility, forgiveness, and compassion. Subjective qualities, of course, but a clear indication that they considered character to count more than capability or industry knowledge in the criteria being a good leader.

Don’t get me wrong, there are confidence tricksters out there who are schooled in mimicking these sort characteristics to shroud their nefarious intentions, but they are few and far between and most of us have our radar raised high enough to detect and steer clear of such people.

That’s because it is hard to fake credibility. Also, it is in the eye of the beholder. We identify integrity and give it value and meaning. Character traits such as forgiveness and compassion for instance are nigh on impossible to imitate.

Indeed, integrity has been described as ‘doing the right thing when no one is watching’, which is oh so true.

Credibility isn’t a tap you can readily turn on and off. It is a key ingredient of a robust character – the empathy with how you treat others and present yourself to the world. To make it part of your marketing mix sounds a bit trite but, for sure, if you shouldn’t quite exactly flaunt it, to reference evidence of your credibility would certainly seem apposite in promoting the things you do and the way you do them in your career and/or business.

Moreover, by wearing your heart on your sleeve this way, you’ll attract like-minded souls – and that’s the real potential of character.

Mahatma Gandhi is credited with the phrase: “Be the change you want to see in the world”. This isn’t just a call to inspire people who share the same ethics and value-laden interests and passions to come together. It differentiates people who do good and signal positive virtues – people who are as proudly wider awake as ‘woke’ can be – from those who deride ‘do-gooders’, ‘virtue signallers’ and anyone they decry as being ‘woke’.

These people lack character, of course. They are self-loathing, negative, mean-spirited moaners – keyboard warriors mainly – who rarely have anything positive to say about anyone or anything, who never raise a finger to help their fellow man and only ever seek to ‘do bad’ so constantly aim to upset those with more virtuous intentions. They’re so vain, I bet they think this blog is about them.

Except it’s not. It is about character and community – how great things can happen when people of character come together with the aim of achieving great things. When you focus on that, who really cares about those who catcall from the side? I don’t. I prefer to focus on the positive and art of the possible. Characteristics, see?

Character – Be the change YOU want to see in the world and shape the business and career you want – is the theme of our online CGM Business Media Club meeting on Friday, April 28 (10am-midday).

For further information and to book your seat visit our Business Media Club webpage.