Have you trained your staff to provide the best possible results? 
 

Is your company investing in its most valuable resource? its employees…. 

 

 

Dictionary Definition of Character

One dictionary defines character, in the sense we are considering here, as "the complex of mental and ethical traits marking a person." In another dictionary, character is said to be "the stable and distinctive qualities built into an individual's life which determine his or her response regardless of circumstances."

Our Character Is Who We Are

Abraham Lincoln said, "Reputation is the shadow. Character is the tree." Our character is not just what we try to display for others to see, it is who we are even when no one is watching. Good character is doing the right thing because it is right to do what is right.

Everyone Has Character

Character transcends race, religion, education, position, age, gender, and personality. People sometimes think of character as something a person either has or doesn't have. They say, "He has character," meaning he has good character. We recognize the truth that everyone has "character" and we distinguish between "good" and "bad" character.

Our Character Determines Our Responses

The definitions above said, character is a "complex of mental and ethical traits" and those traits, or qualities, are "built into an individual's life." It is those qualities, those character traits,  that determine a person's response in any given situation.

 

What are the character qualities, that make up a person's character?

How are they be built into a persons life. Can they be changed?

How does character affect our lives?

It has been said that CHARACTER is the foundation for all true success. A person may have money, position, or power, but unless he has "good" character he or she is not considered to be truly successful.

 

Character Determines Success

We do not often think of character as having such a direct effect on our successes or failures. But when we break character down and consider the individual qualities that together make up a person's character, we can easily see that it is true.  Character Really Does Determine Success.

 

How does character affect the world around us?

Today’s world faces many difficult problems. Escalating crime, drug and alcohol abuse, workplace violence, gang activity, vandalism, school dropouts, deteriorating work ethics, domestic violence, juvenile delinquency, racial tensions, broken families ... The list seems endless.

 

At their root, all of these problems spring out of the lack or misapplication of good character qualities. If we are to find lasting solutions to the problems of our day, we must deal with these roots! We must work to improve our own character and help those around us to improve theirs!  Character development is essential to the ongoing success of our society. Character is the Key to Success!

Business Needs Good Character

Many business leaders are learning that it is counterproductive to focus only on achievement and profit, without emphasizing the character qualities, which underlie the achievement. A business whose employees are developing greater attentiveness, more alertness, more responsibility, and more diligence will certainly become much more successful. We must think in terms of developing character. Character training is essential for lasting success!

 

How We Can Improve Our Character?

Benjamin Franklin designed for himself a plan for building character that certainly seems to have been successful.  He identified thirteen character qualities that he felt needed to be better developed in his own life and devised a method of focusing his attention on each of those qualities for one week at a time.

From Benjamin Franklin's plan we learn the value of focusing our attention on one character quality at a time. During that time we should seek to understand as much as possible about the character quality - what it really is, how it has been illustrated in positive and negative ways in history, how it can be applied to our own life situations. We should also attempt to live our lives as if we fully possessed the character quality upon which we are focusing. We should be aware of how the character quality (or the lack of it) is demonstrated in the lives of those around us and evaluate the results and consequences we see in their lives.

What should we do?

Each of us can, as Benjamin Franklin did, undertake to improve our own character. We can intentionally seek to build good character qualities into our lives and the lives of our family members

We can demonstrate good character on the job and in our community and encourage others to do the same.

We can recognize the vital importance of character to the success of our lives, our businesses, the organizations to which we belong, and to our country and world, and we can seek to influence the part of the world that we touch to become involved in developing better character.