66
50 TOP EXECUTIVE COACHES
that everything you do is wrong only causes you to stop listening. What leaders
need are “loving critics.” I’ve often thought about putting that on my
business card!
Coaching for Character
At a recent character education conference at Santa Clara University ’s
Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Thomas Likona, author of
Educating for
Character, began his talk with this anonymous poem:
Be careful of your thoughts, for your thoughts become your words;
Be careful of your words, for your words become your deeds;
Be careful of your deeds, for your deeds become your habits;
Be careful of your habits; for your habits become your character;
Be careful of your character, for your character becomes your destiny.
This poem summarizes in five lines the rationale behind my approach to
coaching for credibility. The way I see it, strategy is not a biological imperative.
It begins in our minds, gets expressed in words, and then gets translated into
action. Over time, those actions become who we are. What we do repeatedly
will determine the legacy we leave.
Coaching people to use the tools of commerce is necessary but insufficient
to creating a healthy and prosperous society. The right tools in the wrong
hands invite evil ends. The more we study leadership, the more we’re persuaded
that leadership development is not about the tools. It’s about the person.
Leadership development is character development.
 |
 |
 |
 |