Success Depends More on Character Than Skill

In his book Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality, Dr. Henry Cloud says that “there are lot of people who are competent and good at what they do who don’t get to be leaders or ‘hugely’ successful.” He goes on to write that for competent individuals to be successful, they must be able to build alliances with others that are mutually beneficial. Such alliances create opportunities for everyone to be much more successful.

In addition, Dr. Cloud wrote this: “…people who possess the first two abilities [competence and alliance building] are a dime a dozen. There is no shortage of talented, brainy people who are very, very good at what they do and are able to work the system…to get things done.”

But to be genuinely successful, there is one more thing these individuals need, writes Dr. Cloud: “You must have the character not to screw it all up.”

Have you ever known someone who was crazy smart and highly talented yet achieving much less than they could because they kept getting in their way? Have you known people who are unable to successfully:

·       Gain the complete trust of the people they are leading

·       See all of the realities right in front of them, including their de-railers

·       Work in a way that produces outcomes, not just activity

·       Deal with problem people, negative situations, failures, setbacks, and losses

·       Create growth in their organization, their people, and themselves

·       Transcend temporal purposes in favor of larger purposes

You might be thinking that some of these things describe you.

Managing these issues has little to do with IQ, talent, brains, education, experience, or training. The most essential tool in business at our disposal is our character, yet this seems to get the least attention and work. We focus primarily on skill development and knowledge saturation. No one offers an MBA in character development.

Business leaders should look at their personas more frequently as a source of the problems in their business. They fail to realize that their dysfunctions will imprint onto their teams or business, and the results will be seen as a business problem to solve rather than an issue the owner needs to shore up personally. This phenomenon is a fundamental mistake nearly every business owner and leader makes at one time or another.

If you feel like you’re not achieving all you can, you may need to look inward and ask yourself if you’re getting in your own way. Perhaps your lack of success is staring at you in the mirror.