Which virtues matter most to leadership effectiveness and why? How are these virtues identified, selected for, and/or developed? Find out how leader virtues can "make or break" an organization, and how they can create a positive contagion effect for mutual employee-employer benefit. From a Research@DeGroote seminar presented by Dr. Rick Hackett on April 25, 2014. More information: http://bit.ly/DSB_20140425

1. Leadership Character & Virtues
Ethics
Ron Joyce Centre, April 25, 2014

2. A Road Map
Rick D. Hackett
1. Context for focus on Leader Character
2. What is Character?
3. What is leadership?
4. Role of Character in leadership effectiveness
5. Virtues of effective leaders
6. Leader virtues and the “contagion effect”
7. Building and sustaining a virtues-laden culture

3. Context: Spotlight on Character
Rick D. Hackett
 WorldCom, Enron
 Crumbling textile factories in Bangladesh
 Pratt & Whitney’s Exporting of Military software to China
 Failure of TD Bank to report suspicions on a Florida Ponzi Scheme
 Brazeau, Duffy, Wallin,
 Toronto Mayor Rob Ford
 Resignations by MP Bev Oda, Premier Alison Redford
 Journal retracts articles of prominent ethics researcher

4. Admiration
Rick D. Hackett
Think of the person in your lifetime that you most admire and aspire to.
What is it about that person that you admire?
What attributes come to mind when thinking of this person?

5. What is Character ?
Rick D. Hackett
 Seldom do people say, rich, powerful and famous!
 Character is what we want others to admire in us
 Building character = building foundation of who you are
 It is exemplified in the way people think, feel and act
 Reflecting one’s core values
 …and comprised of one’s virtues

6. Character
Rick D. Hackett
Resilient
Courageous
Compassionate
Respectful
Persevering
Fair
Benevolent
Prudent
Wise
Trustworthy
Integrity
Humble
Self-disciplined
Decisive
Empowering
Consultative
Honest
Authentic
Attentive
Temperance
Loyal
Tolerant
Spiritual
Considerate

7. What is Leadership?
Rick D. Hackett
 Process of social influence, getting things done through others
 Ideally toward an end promoting the common good
 Reflecting shared values
 Emerging from confluence of competence, the situation and
character
Lapses in character is much more difficult to repair (trust) than an
incidence of incompetence!

8. No leadership without followership!
Rick D. Hackett
 Influence = power
 Power sources:
 expertise
 Authority/position
 Coercion
 Referent (Character-based)
 But, how to achieve sustainable influence of a non-
transactional basis

9. Character Based Leadership: How it works!
Rick D. Hackett
 Role Modeling
 Moral identity:
 Moral ownership
 Moral efficacy
 Moral courage

10. Building a “Virtuous Organization”
Rick D. Hackett
 Amplifying Effect: Escalating positive effects
 Buffering Effect: Inoculation against adversity
Virtuousness is self-reinforcing and fosters resiliency against negative
and challenging obstacles.
Overtime, recognition and rewarding virtuous behaviour builds a
strong normative culture: of respect, helpfulness and enjoyment,
fueling a self-reinforcing spiral that builds social capital

11. Virtues, culture and performance
Rick D. Hackett
Abundant research shows exposure to unexpected acts of goodness
(virtuousness) triggers affiliative behaviour – a tendency to repeat
the good deeds, thereby building social capital
People are more helpful to others after being induced to feel positive
emotions, thereby priming the very prosocial behaviours that build
social capital
Social capital is premised on trust, which is nourished through acts of
virtues, reducing transaction costs, building loyalty, community,
shared values, knowledge sharing, org performance

12. Aristotle: Virtues Ethics and Eudemonia
Rick D. Hackett
 Virtues reflect character strengths, comprising one’s moral
identity, and that give rise to moral agency
 Virtues are strengthened through self-learning and repetitive
practice (habituation)
 Virtues are voluntarily and behaviorally expressed and are
contextually embedded
 Expression of virtues in the extreme (either too little, or two
much, is not a good thing).
 Virtues form a unified whole – moral compass

13. Virtues
Rick D. Hackett
Watch your thoughts, they become words;
watch your words, they become actions;
watch your actions, they become habits;
watch your habits, they become character;
watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

14. Virtues and leadership effectiveness
Rick D. Hackett
 Prudence
 Courage/fortitude
 Temperance
 Justice/Fairness
 Humanity/compassion
 Truthfulness/integrity
 Wisdom/knowledge
 Transcendence/spirituality

15. An Evidenced Based Approach
Rick D. Hackett & Gordon Wang
 Hackett & Wang (2012):
 Developed Virtuous Leadership Scale
 Administered to 230 leader-follower pairs
 Across manufacturing, public administration, oil, gas, business
services
 Leaders independently rated reports on job performance and
citizenship behaviours
 Reports rated their leaders on virtuous leadership scale

16. Example survey items
Rick D. Hackett & Gordon Wang
 My leader/supervisor expresses concern for the misfortune of
others
 My supervisor/leader resolves conflicts in a fair and objective
fashion
 My supervisor/leader leads fundamental change though it
may entail personal sacrifice and personal risks
 My supervisor/leader is a careful custodian of organizational
resources

17. Results
Rick D. Hackett & Gordon Wang
 Virtuous leadership predicted:
 Subordinate’s job performance
 Subordinates’ citizenship behaviours
 Leaders’ self-reported happiness
 Leaders’ self-reported life satisfaction
 Subordinates’ happiness
 Subordinate’s life satisfaction
So, virtuous leadership positively predicts the well-being of both
leaders and their followers, and the performance and
citizenship of reports (employees)

18. Accumulating independent research
Rick D. Hackett
Virtues-based leadership positively predicts:
 Empowerment
 Organizational identification and commitment
 Moral identity
 Organizational citizenship behaviours
 Employee trust in leader
 Subordinates’ psychological and physical well-being
 Executive performance, as rated by board members
 Firm profitability (organizational virtuousness scale)

19. An action plan…
Rick D. Hackett
Selecting:
 Decisions: reference checks, background checks,
 Behavioral situational interviewing
 Situational simulations/work samples
 Some companies resorting to social networking analysis
Shaping/developing
 Position descriptions with built in accountabilities
 Orientation and workshops, case analyses, review of behavioral
examples of virtues as expressed in the workplace
 Reflect character in performance reviews – discuss not only what
was accomplished, but how it was accomplished

20. Supporting and Nourishing Culture
Rick D. Hackett & Gordon Wang
 Link goals and aspirations of the organization with its
principles and values
 Link virtuous behaviours to value creation & protection
 Managers and Supervisors “must walk the talk”
 Recognize and reward individuals for virtuous behaviours
 Create culture in which ethics and values of the organization
are discussed, understood and reflected in actions of
employees at all levels
 Tie performance to values and ethics

21. Four Seasons Hotel
Rick D. Hackett & Gordon Wang
What we believe
 Our greatest asset, and the key to our success, is
our people. We believe that each of us needs a
sense of dignity, pride and satisfaction in what we
do. Because satisfying our guests depends on the
united efforts of many, we are most effective when
we work together cooperatively, respecting each
other’s contribution and importance.

22. Four Seasons Hotel
Rick D. Hackett & Gordon Wang
 How we behave
We demonstrate our beliefs most meaningfully in
the way we treat each other and by the example we
set for one another. In all our interactions with our
guests, customers, business associates and
colleagues, we seek to deal with others as we would
have them deal with us.

23. Q & A
Rick D. Hackett & Gordon Wang
Thank you!