Welcome to Friday 411, issue #128. In 4 minutes, with 1 insight and 1 action, you’ll strengthen the foundation of your leadership.
1 Insight
Titles don’t make a leader worth following. Character does. Without it, you risk leaving destruction in your wake.
When I (Garland) was growing up, my father served as an associate pastor at a church. If you’re not familiar with that position, it’s like being the COO of a congregation. Dad ensured operations ran smoothly and the church was fulfilling its mission.
Dad thrived in that role. He had built a strong, trusting relationship with the senior pastor (the “CEO” of the church), and together they led the church effectively. Dad was respected as a ministry leader who got things done while also caring deeply for people.
When that senior pastor retired, the church hired a new senior pastor (we’ll call him Ken), and everything changed. It didn’t take long for Dad to realize something was off. Actually, several “somethings” were off. Ken made unethical choices that squandered both the resources and the reputation of the church. Though his actions revealed he was not a man of high character, he initially managed to deceive many in the church and keep his indiscretions hidden.
Dad’s position provided a “behind-the-curtain” view that was a threat to Ken’s activities. When Dad confronted him, Ken didn’t respond with humility. Instead, he shoved him and snarled, “Keep your mouth shut, or I’ll take you and this church to hell with me.” (Not exactly the kind of attitude you want from your pastor.)
My dad brought his concerns to the board—the church’s ruling body—made up of those whose responsibility it was to handle the hard things. Instead, they evaded and handed it back to Dad, telling him he needed to figure out how to deal with Ken. But the truth was, there was no way forward. Ken’s moral compass pointed in a completely different direction from my father’s.
After he had been there about a year, Ken was finding it increasingly difficult to hide his behaviors from the church. When he became convinced that losing his job was inevitable, Ken asked Dad to lie for him. Dad refused. Ken told Dad if he was going down, he would make sure Dad did, too. In the end, Ken was faithful to that promise. He manipulated the situation to ensure that Dad was fired right along with him.
The fallout was devastating. Hundreds of people left the congregation. Families lost their spiritual home. Lifelong friendships crumbled. For many, the church split left a wound that would take years to heal.
As a 14-year-old, I watched the consequences unfold with confusion, grief, and fury. I couldn’t wrap my head around how one man’s poor choices could cause so much collateral damage. I harbored anger and bitterness toward that pastor for years. Even though time has chipped away at my resentment, I still carry the scars.
But scars can shape us. Those wounds ignited within me a deep passion for leadership and a relentless conviction: titles don’t make a leader worth following. Character does.
If you want to be a leader worth following, you need to develop two types of character.
#1 Moral Character
What went wrong in that church began with a failure of moral character. Moral character is the foundation of every leader’s influence. It’s the determination to do what’s right even when it’s difficult, inconvenient, or costly. Without moral character, a leader might hold a title, but they don’t hold people’s trust.
Ken missed it. His ethics did not match his power. He had authority but not integrity. Without integrity, his leadership left destruction in its wake.
This is why moral character matters so much. Your leadership carries a ripple effect. The choices you make inevitably impact dozens, hundreds, sometimes thousands of lives.
Just ask those affected by Enron.
But moral character doesn’t have to be embezzlement or insider trading. It presents itself in more subtle forms:
- promising someone a raise without follow-through
- refusing to work weekends even though everyone is expected to
- using company resources for personal gain
- gossiping about team members to other team members
- leveraging your position of power to threaten or manipulate
When a leader lacks moral character, people lose confidence not only in the leader but also in the organization itself. Teams fracture. Trust evaporates. People carry anger, disappointment, and disillusionment for years, long after the leader is gone. I know this from experience.
Moral character, then, is not optional. In reality, it is the type of character that every human being should have—especially leaders. It is the bedrock of trust. Without it, leadership collapses into control and manipulation. With it, leadership earns the right to ask others to follow.
#2 Leadership Character
Moral character is necessary, but it’s not enough.
You’ve met plenty of people with good moral character—honest, kind, upstanding men and women—who couldn’t (as the saying goes) lead their way out of a paper bag. They were trustworthy but not follow-worthy. Why? Because they lacked the second type of character: leadership character.
Leadership character is a mindset—a set of values and practices that shape how you lead others. It’s not just about being a good person; it’s about leading in a way that builds trust, respect, and momentum. Without leadership character, even leaders with the best intentions can frustrate their teams, avoid hard conversations, or hoard responsibilities.
We once worked with a leader named Sam. He was beloved in his community for his kindness and generosity. His moral character was unquestionable. Yet inside his office, the story was different. Sam hated conflict, so he let problems fester. He rarely admitted mistakes or asked for input, and he took credit for his team’s victories. Sam’s team respected him as a man but struggled under him as a leader.
Over our years of working with leaders, we’ve observed five common mistakes regarding leadership character: Leaders:
- Fail to act with humility. They think too highly of themselves or their position and seldom admit mistakes or ask for help.
- Hog the spotlight. They hoard the credit to themselves rather than highlighting the contributions of every person on the team.
- Neglect taking 125% responsibility. They blame other people for problems rather than accepting ownership for their role in creating issues.
- They avoid handling the hard things. They sidestep hard conversations and decisions that might make them temporarily unpopular.
- They don’t expect character from others. They resist holding others accountable to being people of both moral and leadership character.
Leadership character doesn’t mean perfection. It means practicing humility, courage, and responsibility in ways that reinforce trust day after day. Without it, even the most moral leader becomes ineffective. With it, leaders become worth following.
As a leader, you need to cultivate both types of character. Moral character earns the right to lead, and leadership character makes people willing to follow.
In our upcoming book, Unleashed Leadership, we introduce Character as well as the six other issues that cause 95% of leadership problems: Competence, Capacity, Clarity, Community, Culture, and Consistency. Each one matters. But it all starts here: with becoming a leader worth following.
1 Action
Take a look at your own character. Are you leading with both moral and leadership character?