Leading with Character & Competence: The Core & The Crust

At LeaderFactor, we view leadership as an applied discipline. It’s a learnable skill. It’s something that you can improve with good information and a lot of effort. Leadership is a factor in every decision and every outcome. Character and competence are two big pieces of leadership that will frame everything that follows.

(0:07:04) Character is your core. Your core refers to the way that you govern yourself from the inside out. You’re making decisions and you’re choosing to influence people toward worthy goals and worthy ends. If we treat leadership as an applied discipline, character separates good leaders from great ones.

(0:15:06) Leaders are paid for their judgment, productivity, and collaboration. Judgment is a combination of integrity and knowledge. Productivity is a combination of discipline and skill. Collaboration is a combination of humility and communication.

(0:25:36) Dissonance between the institution and the individual. Often, it’s a collision between personal incentive and an organizational incentive or a personal interest and an organizational interest.

(​​0:30:48) Competence is your crust. This is on top of the core of character. It’s your technical skill, expertise, talents, and aptitudes. If we want to improve our influence there are two levers: who we are and what we do.

(0:39:08) Dangerous leaders with low character and high competence. How can you avoid dangerous hires that are fueled by charisma? Tim and Junior explain how to protect yourself against these kinds of hires with low character.

(0:41:43) The three traits of great leaders. Tim and Junior explain how self-awareness, continuous learning, and authenticity help leaders maximize their influence in their organizations.