“Don’t be impressed with charisma; look for character.”

It is on Boards of Directors to choose a CEO who has character over charisma. It is on CEOs to hire teams who have character over charisma.  It is on all of us to do all we can to discern what is character or not and to not be pulled in or swayed by charisma.  One of our worst failings in business and the choice of leaders is that when we weigh out character versus charisma, we take the path of least resistance and charisma wins out.

Charisma seems to be innate.  Some people have it and others don’t.  We know it when we see it and it can be spellbinding.  But, Jesus tells us that we are to choose character and do so by “looking” for it.  To look is to take an active stance.  We get to decide who we follow and in some cases we get to decide who our leaders will be.  And in our work, we choose who will work with us as we bring in new people to our teams.  So, let’s be very active in looking for character and not being impressed with charisma.

Reference: Matthew 7:16 (The Message)