The first article in this two-part series explored the Leader Character Framework and its importance to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Read it here.
As established in the first article of this two-part series, the evidence that elevating character alongside competence matters to individuals and organizations is solid and compelling. The foundation is in place to enable the paradigm shift and it starts with infusing awareness of what character is in training and extending that awareness into development. Character is about the development of habit, and when it comes to character, we are all becoming someone while we are busy doing. For example, we can become more courageous or less courageous, particularly in an organization context that may threaten us.
Here, we’ll explore more best practices for advancing DEI through character.
1. Equip people with understanding.
Equipping people with the basic understanding of what character is, how potential virtues can operate like vices and what they can do to bring character development into their everyday practice is a critical starting point. Essentially, moving the needle on character development is what moves the needle on DEI. There are many available resources to help foster your awareness and cultivate that awareness in others. Apart from articles such as this, there are many publicly available resources that help you embark on the character development journey.
2. Assess leader character: shedding light on virtues and vices.
Moving from awareness to assessment, there are also readily available resources. Consider the framework in Figure 1 of the first article in this series, and you can begin to self-assess on your strengths and weaknesses. If you want to take this further, there are self and 360-degree assessments of leader character available through many assessment providers.
Training and development initiatives can bring attention to what could be a virtuous behavior, operating like a vice. Reinforcing the point that people don’t intend to be dysfunctional, and are often unaware that their strengths, unsupported by other dimensions of character, are operating as vices, is the start of the paradigm shift.
3. Activate and foster character development.
As with assessments, there are many tools in place to help you and those around you activate and develop character. For example, the Virtuosity app provides training and development material for facilitators right in the app, while also providing people with the practical daily exercises, customized to their learning and development journey.
Imagine offering a music workshop to activate and develop character. We have found that when individuals reflect on and share music they can activate the various dimensions of character that DEI is brought to life. Through music we learn about others while cultivating faces of empathy, compassion (humanity), interconnectedness (collaboration), vulnerability (humility) and authenticity (integrity), to name a few.
4. Work on the organization while working in it.
Training and development initiatives can bring attention to individuals operating within their systems so that can learn to work on the organization while working in it. As individuals embark on the journey to understand and develop character, they become acutely aware that the organization systems tend to over-weight and under-weight dimensions of character, which hardwires the problems that DEI initiatives are attempting to solve. How can we achieve Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream if our systems of selection and promotion in organizations do not account for the character of the individual?
A case study of the Canada Revenue Agency, with 50,000 employees, describes how they were able to elevate character alongside competence in selection In the process, they discovered how critical it is to foster the development of character as an underpinning to their processes, and to keep a careful eye on how the application and development of character can enable or undermine DEI.
Elevating character alongside competence is the paradigm shift needed to embrace DEI — and with that comes the demand for strength of character to be a champion of character change. And with that comes the need to develop character and, as Gandhi famously said, “to be the change we want to see in this world.”
