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Character Matters
Character Matters
May 1, 2001
"How can you earn trust and protect your most important leadership tool? Try the following:
1. Keep your promises. You don't have to promise things just to make us feel good. Just keep the promises you do make and we'll trust what you say.
2. Speak out for what you think is important. If we have to guess how you feel about something we may guess wrong. Please save us the trouble. Tell us how you feel and why. We'll respect you much more.
3. Err on the side of fairness. Be fair to all of us. Sometimes you have to make difficult decisions that affect many people. All we ask is that you be fair at all times - regardless of the type of decisions you have to make.
4. Do what you say you are going to do. Just let your 'yes' be yes and your 'no' mean no. When you're going to do something, we should be able to consider it done (Cottrell, 2000, p.5)."
Reference: Cottrell, D. (2000). Listen up, leader! Pay attention, improve, and guide. Dallas: Walk the Talk Company.
Are you a leader of character?
Listen Up, Leader is available on loan from the OSU Leadership Center. A complete listing of all the Leadership Center's resources is available on our website http://leadershipcenter.osu.edu/
Created: 2009-01-02, Updated: 2009-01-15
