“Be true to character”. Be competent. Be compassionate. Serve your community.
Peter Drucker who was known as the father of modern-day management shared the 4 Cs of excellent leadership. Some refer to them as the DNA of authentic leadership. There are Competency, Character, Compassion, and Community. When you think of leading you need to remember your home, community, and work. You also need to remember to start with yourself. Let me share my thoughts on these 4 Cs. I also invite you to do the same.
Character: It is your brand, your passport, and your reputation. In my book Thinking and acting with a Compassionate Heart, I have an aphorism that states, “Be true to your yourself. For no one knows you that well.” Your character goes before you. It travels with you. And it stays behind you long after you are gone. When you are true to character, you can have a peace of mind even when you are navigated through stormy water and flying in the midst of thick turbulence. These tough times will call. But you can still remain calm.
Competency: It is what you owe to people you lead. It is the drive that is in you that propels you to find your talents and passion and to be the best you can. Talent is not enough. It is the dedication, the work ethic and the caring for others that will keep you going when tough times come. I love these lines that I read from the book Becoming Your Best by Steve Shallenberger, “Good, Better, Best. Never let it rest. Til’ the good is better. And the better is best.” Whatever you do, keep doing your best.
I remember when I went to Snow College, many, many years ago. I had a job on campus to clean the offices. I always did my best so when I went back to school the next day I could tell without any hesitation that I was the one who vacuumed that room if someone wanted to know. Even when no one wanted to know I still did my best because I knew I was the one who did it. I wanted to stand behind my work. Being competent is different than being perfect.
Character and competency is about our passion. Compassion and community is about others. And yet all four of them work well together. It is refreshing to have people like Peter Drucker and many others that I enjoy learning from talk about these 4 Cs. Of all these 4 Cs character is the glue. There are a lot of people in the world who are competent. But some of them fall short in the area of character. I can promise you that someone who is true to character will always try to work to give his best.
Compassion is the good deed that we do to alleviate the suffering of others. This definition applies to every aspect of life: home, community, and work. In business we talk about pain point and solutions to problems. Does what you do solve the problem – remove the pain of your customers. If not, you serve yourself. There is no compassion in self-service.
Community: This is the basic fabric of society. The first element of your community is you. Your family is your first community. Your deeds influence the members of your community. Your customers, employees, and management team are members of your community. When you are making decisions, do you think of them? Without a community there is no true meaning to anything we do.
We are in this world together. We need one another. “Be true to character”. Be competent. Be compassionate. Serve your community. My name is Illens Dort. I am grateful that we share the same community.
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Thank you for your time!!! Illens Dort – authour of Thinking and Acting with a Compassionate Heart. To buy a copy go to https://www.amazon.com/author/Illensdort.