First and foremost I am really excited to write this blog for two reasons. One reason is because its my first one and the second reason is because it’s related to leadership and that happens to be in the area of my attempted degree, Business Administration.
Iceberg. 90% of an iceberg remains under the water and obviously the 10% is on top. The information that was never revealed in the story of the famous Titanic is that there had been several warnings to the captain of icebergs ahead. What he forgot was that 90% of the iceberg is unseen and therefore it resulted in the crash of the titanic. In this scenario the unseen iceberg played an important role. In leadership, the unseen parts of your life play an important role as well, such as character. I believe Adolf Hitler was a great leader. He had the skills to motivate people and the drive to get them to listen to him, thats the 10% that represents the skills and talents. However his character, the 90% and the important unseen factor, SUCKS! (obviously it was portrayed in what he used his talents and skills for)
As a christian, I believe that everyone is called to be a leader. A leader where you work, to the people around you, to the people that look up to you and of course a leader to yourself, If you can’t lead yourself you wont be able to lead others. That being said, what are the people around you looking up to?
So, to be a great leader skills and talents are important, however CHARACTER plays a major role.
So What is Character?
Character is:
1. Self Discipline “The ability to do what’s right even if you don’t feel like it”
2. Core Values “Principles you live by that enable you to take a moral stand”
3. Sense of Identity “A realistic self-image based on your gifts and personality”
4. Emotional Security “The capacity to be emotionally stable and consistent”
Self Discipline- It is very tempting to not do something when you know you need to do it. For example, living in a guy’s house is very challenging, especially when there is 13 guys living under the same roof. It is everyone as individuals to do whats right and clean after yourselves. You may not feel like it because you are tired, or “it wasn’t you” but you know that maintaing a clean house is what you need to do, so do it!
Core Values- For the most part, morals originate from parents. Through the years my morals have been based on family traditions but as I got to college my moral standards have changed to what I was being told to making it my decision, which I chose to have biblical standards. I believe without structured core values, leadership will fail. Hypocrisy in my mind is the biggest example. If you are preaching one set of standards but living a completely different set, the people who look up to you will not want to follow you anymore.
Sense of Identity- God blesses you with skills and talents to benefit his kingdom. It is your job to acknowledge that. Growing up it was very difficult to understand what skills or talents God has blessed me with. For 13 years of my life I was convinced it was baseball. I started to realize that Baseball might not be it. After committing myself to doing what Christ calls me to do, I realize my skills and talents consist of 1. Go getting attitude, 2. Ability to have an inner-drive, 3. Multi-Media and 4. Social-development. By acknowledging that this is who i am, my abilities to allow God’s kingdom will grow.
Emotional Security- Yes I do believe that it is important to keep personal emotions separate from work performance. No i do not believe that you should keep them to yourselves. Being the bi-polar person that I am, I have learned that the best way to handle my emotions is to 1. Acknowledge my emotions and 2. Vent them, by sharing how you are feeling. Ive also learned in the past that sharing them with someone who has experience with handling emotions is the best person to talk too. Also I believe that having an Emotional security on God, makes things a lot easier because God can take care of your problems and take care of them himself.
Rate your self on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the strongest.
Self Discipline 8
Core Values 7
Sense of Identity 8
Emotional Security 4
In striving to develop my character I will attempt at the following tasks.
1. Interview leaders who possess characters. In order to understand what character a good leader has, you must do a little digging and learn about them and how they would hand certain scenarios. My suggestion is to connect with church leaders, and morally intelligent people who value standards that are fulfilling such as the bible.
2. Perform at least two acts a week that you don’t like. By doing this, you can develop a sense of self discipline. It has been said that by doing something for 2 weeks consistently, it will break bad habits. Get up and doing something that you don’t like, that way when your self-discipline is put to the test you wont be to far off.
3. Set goals. The best way to set goals is to set achievable minor goals to build self – esteem. One goal i am setting is I will have 2 different conversations with 2 different people this week. An unreachable goal would probably be like I will reach out to 2 different people this week and study with them. It is not that its not achievable, but minor goals encourages you along the way.
4. Find a worthwhile cause and anonymously donate to it. Find a cause and donate to it anonymously because if you find a cause and donate to it always, it becomes a routine rather than a gesture. This will challenge your intentions and moral standards.
5. Put your promises on paper. Writing I Promise _____ hold your more accountable that saying I Promise.
So join me if you would like. I truly believe that this is something I want to pursue in because my character can be contagious. People read the bible because the people of the bible have great moral standards. People are going to look at you and say what?. By having good character you also build credibility ( trust) and respect from others.
I Matt Hernando promise to strive to be a good leader by developing my character daily.
mchernando 