Municipal Monitor Q4 2016 | Page 13

COVER STORY

Organizations can make character more explicit in the hiring process by adding character to job profiles. For example, both the City of Calgary and the City of Hamilton have taken the initiative to include character into the description of what it takes to be a successful leader at the city.

An important avenue of ensuring that character resonates throughout an organization is to embed character in leadership development practices. We know that there are people who believe that character cannot be developed – that you either have it or you don’ t. This belief is simply wrong. There is ample research that shows that character can be developed.

As humans, we have the potential to learn, modify our behaviours, adapt to changing environments and experiment as we make our way in life. We do not always act on that potential but it is always there to be seized upon. Individuals can choose to look for opportunities for learning and development. This includes things like taking advantage of stretch assignments and other opportunities provided by the organization.

Reflection plays a critical role in the learning process. There are two distinct kinds of reflection. The first is reflection on action: the conscious pulling back from our day-to-day activities in order to contemplate those activities and draw lessons from them. Reflection on action allows leaders to see patterns over time, and perhaps make adjustments in their approaches to leadership. The second is reflection in action: the real-time processing of the feedback loops between how we are behaving, how our behaviours are being interpreted by others and whether the behaviours need modifying in order for us to go where we want to go.

It’ s always tempting for individuals to say that they don’ t have time for reflection. We are always busy. But the opposite is true – leaders don’ t have the luxury of failing to reflect.

Such reflection of course requires data or feedback. Everyone has lots of data. We get feedback on how we interacted with people after key meetings, in formal and informal appraisals and from conversations with mentors on the progress we’ re making in our roles. We get feedback from friends and non-friends, from family and from colleagues. But this feedback is often fragmented, frequently contradictory and sometimes given in ways that are not conducive to development. But we should all remember that feedback is a gift. Some of it we expected to hear; at other times, we are surprised by the candor with which people provided the feedback. cultures. Mentors provide a sounding board for individuals and an opportunity to share personal experiences in handling challenging workplace situations and the leadership lessons embedded in these situations. They hire and promote those who seem to demonstrate the appropriate behaviours, and sometimes fire those who disappoint along that dimension. They model the character they want to see throughout the organization. Finally, they provide the resources and personal engagement in character-based formal leadership development processes and programs that will contribute to creating a high-performing organization staffed by people of good character. Failure to address character clearly, systematically and aggressively leaves many leadership development programs merely scratching the surface of possibilities.

It is an understatement to say that the world craves better leadership. The need for better leadership is evident from headlines alluding to leadership failures across virtually all

“ There are people who believe that character cannot be developed – that you either have it or you don’ t. This belief is simply wrong. There is ample research that shows that character can be developed.”

sectors of society. But whether the quality of leadership in our organizations improves or not depends on the efforts of many stakeholders – families, schools, clubs, religious institutions, boards, professional associations, senior leaders and so forth. Organizations are good at addressing leadership competencies. In contrast, character often gets ignored. It would be a far better approach to tailor leadership development programs to the needs of the organization and its people, so that they address both the competencies that leaders have to call upon and the character dimensions that they need to develop. Developing leader character is a lifelong journey. The possibility to develop character exists in every moment of every day.

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