This blog is not about politics. It is a blog about leadership character. I am going to pose a question – What’s not to regard about President Obama’s leadership character? Unfortunately, many members of Congress have spent these past seven years trying to tear apart the core character of a man who has been steadfast in his service and stewardship. To date, he has shown up to work daily; been a present-day and loving father to his two daughters and, shared his respectful and enduring relationship with his wife for all of us to experience. Talk about leadership character.

How many of us showed up for work and had our very citizenship challenged? How many of us received continued public interrogation about a citizenship that was never in question? How many of us have endured explicit and implicit biases as we stepped forward to our new job? How many of us took a job where another governmental employee stated “[h] is number-one goal was to make sure that Barack Obama was a one-term president.”  What hubris?

Again, I’m talk about leadership character. Our president has this in abundance. Recently I watched a repeat of his leadership where he moved a grieving audience to join in his “not so perfect pitched” rendition of Amazing Grace. I had chills as I bore witness to his core character.

In May/June 2007, Ivey Business Journal published an article titled The Character of Leadership. In their study, the authors identify three underlying dimensions of leadership character. They are:

·      Universalism is the outward expression of leadership character and is made manifest by respectfulness for others, fairness, cooperativeness, compassion, spiritual respect, and humility.

·      Transformation is how leaders achieve universal and benevolent outcomes. Transformational leaders with character have courage, passion, wisdom, competency, and self-discipline in their leadership repertoire.

·      Benevolence is associated with loyalty, selflessness, integrity, and honesty.

Our Congressional delegation would certainly benefit from the results of this study – party affiliation not excepted (http://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/the-character-of-leadership).

Think character in leadership doesn't matter – think again. In the inimitable words of deceased Martin Luther King, Jr. – “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

I have that dream for us all. Coaching is a great path for achieving dreams.