“How you do anything is how you do everything.” Unknown

I have been struggling with the rise and fall of leaders in our world, and trying to identify which leaders I think are worth emulating. There are those that seem to have a large following, who talk a big game and appear to move heaven and earth to get what they want. But I dislike them greatly – which got me thinking, “Am I crazy? Am I missing something? Maybe what I think is a great leader is wrong?”

Then it hit me, in two words what I had trouble articulating for such a long time.

Character matters.

How you do things matters. How you treat people in your day to day interactions matters.

Character is who you are when no one is looking. Character shows up in how you behave when things are not going your way, or according to your plan.

If character matters, then that would mean the Machiavellian way, geting things done using whatever means possible, even if that requires destroying other people in the process, is not okay.

There is a way to lead without trampling others under foot. There is a form or leadership that genuinely would want to let go of power if it was for the benefit of those it is leading. That is the kind of leader I would follow and seek to emulate. There are only of handful of examples of this sort of leadership that come to mind…