THE MOST POWERFUL FORCE

Exodus chapter 10




Today we are walking in: The Most Powerful Force








Today we look to the word-LEADER- H5057 nagiyd-- leader, ruler, captain, prince; excellent thing, (chief) governor, leader, noble, prince, (chief) ruler.







The Torah Testifies.............................

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The prophets proclaim...............







Isaiah 55:4 - Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader H5057 and commander to the people.


















The writings bear witness.............







2Chronicles 32:21 - And the LORD sent an angel, which cut off all the mighty men of valour, and the leaders H5057 and captains in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he was come into the house of his god, they that came forth of his own bowels slew him there with the sword











The Most Powerful Force




Character is the most powerful force a leader can possess because it protects his life, his leadership, and his legacy—it manifests who he is and shapes

who he will become. Without character, every other aspect of leadership is at risk. Let’s look at some of the ways that character protects and preserves one’s leadership.




Character Protects a Leader’s Inner Life




Character establishes a leader’s integrity and enables his growth as a person of ethics and values. Leadership training and development must start with the inner life of the leader before it can move on to the principles and process of leadership.




Having character will not prevent you from experiencing various struggles and setbacks in life—all leaders have those. But for long-term personal and professional success—and for the ultimate summation of your life— maintaining character is indispensable.




“Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.”

—Theodore Roosevelt




Character Extends the Longevity of Leadership




As we have seen, leaders across the globe—in all levels and arenas of society—are being removed from their leadership roles and positions due to ethical violations and moral concerns. Their downfalls have cut short their leadership, causing them to lose their ability to exercise their innate gifts, through which they were meant to fulfill their purpose and vision in life.




A point that we will return to as we explore the nature of character is that leadership is a privilege given by the followers. When a leader violates moral standards, he forfeits the privilege to use his gift in the service of the followers who gave it. Leaders don’t have a “right” to be followed. The privilege of leadership is one that leaders must protect through their character and the trust it evokes. Only the power of genuine character can restore the faith in leadership and authority that many people lack today.




I have watched many highly gifted leaders who have manifested a character failure act as if they had done nothing wrong. Believing they could cruise along on their gifts alone, they didn’t understand that they had forfeited the opportunity to continue serving their talents and abilities to the world—at least until they had effectively addressed their character defects. Leaders who have fallen need to stop and correct their ethical issues first. Then, they can begin to earn others’ trust again, and, hopefully, move forward in genuine leadership.




Businessman Elmer G. Leterman wrote, “Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open.” Your character—not your gift—is the fuel of your leadership. Your gift is validated by your character. So, when your character isn’t maintained and starts to “leak,” your gift loses the ethical power that propels it.

A leader’s gift is only as safe as the character that contains it.




So, while leaders have many opportunities to use their gifts and skills, it is character that ultimately determines the length and effectiveness of their leadership. Years ago, one of my mentors told me, “Whatever you compromise to gain, you will lose.” Many people have sacrificed a great future on the altar of compromise. They have taken their potential to impact the world and thrown it away for momentary pleasure or monetary gain.




Jesse Jackson Jr., a former U.S. Congressman and the son of the civil rights leader, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for using campaign funds to make more than 3,000 personal purchases over a period of seven years, totaling approximately $750,000.4 The prosecutor for the case commented, “Jackson’s political potential was unlimited.... He squandered his great capacity for public service through outright theft.”5




The consequences of lost leadership affect not only individuals but also corporate entities. Energy company Enron went bankrupt and had to sell off all its assets after some of its executives used fraudulent accounting practices to hide its debt. The actions of those executives helped to crack the foundation of the whole company, and their own contributions as leaders were cut short.




Accordingly, leaders must become aware of an often-overlooked, but very real, threat to their leadership longevity: success. Don’t expect your success to carry you in life. Rather, let your success be carried by your character. Many people cannot handle achievement well because the accompanying responsibility, rewards, and stakes weigh too heavily on them. People can fall into all kinds of moral and ethical problems when they are successful because they suddenly feel all-powerful and unrestrained. They don’t realize that they are setting themselves up for a disastrous fall.




People become leaders when they make the decision not to sacrifice their principles on the altar of convenience or compromise.




The great leader Jesus of Nazareth said, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”6 In effect, a person can “gain the world” through the power and riches associated with his leadership but, at the same time, forfeit his soul—the very core of his being—by ignoring or betraying his own character. In doing so, he can lose his leadership impact and longevity—not to mention the reason for his very existence. That is a tragic waste of his leadership and his life.




The only way to protect what you hope to accomplish as a leader, and what you have already accomplished, is to develop and maintain strong personal character.




Character Preserves a Leader’s Cause and Legacy




As we have noted, a leader’s failure can damage the reputation of the government, company, organization, or associates with which he is connected. This truth illustrates another foundational principle that we will explore more fully later on: A leader’s values are personal—but they are never private.




Some years ago, when United Way chairman William Aramony was sentenced to prison for embezzling the organization’s funds, the news of his actions damaged the charity’s reputation. When a scandal occurs within an organization, that organization has to rebuild its reputation and earn the public’s trust all over again. The United Way board took immediate action to restore the faith of its donors by hiring as their interim chairman a businessman who was known for his integrity.




A leader’s values are personal—but they are never private.




Some leaders fall dramatically and publicly, destroying their legacies in an instant. Other leaders unravel their legacies over a long, slow moral descent that eventually ruins their lives. When the longevity of an individual’s leadership is cut short by a character issue, he is often unable to leave the legacy that he was meant to give to his generation. He has to forfeit his vision —or, if not his vision itself, then his own participation in that vision.




Shortly after Lance Armstrong stepped down as chairman of his charity due to doping charges, the charity—which helps those who are dealing with cancer—changed its name from the Lance Armstrong Foundation to the LIVESTRONG Foundation. Former Executive Vice President of Operations Andy Miller said, “We set about charting an independent course forward.”7 Ironically, the name of the charity’s founder and former leader had to be

removed to help safeguard its future.




No matter how much good a person may have done, his contributions can be overshadowed by even one questionable act. For two hundred years, Elbridge Gerry, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and vice president of the United States, has been more widely remembered for the term that was coined based on his single act of political maneuvering than for any other part of his time in public service: gerrymandering.




Hitendra Wadhwa, a professor at Columbia Business School, wrote about one of the characteristics that made Martin Luther King Jr. a great leader and helped to preserve his purpose, message, and legacy. It was his commitment to control his anger at the injustices and insults that were continually hurled against him, and to channel that anger toward constructive purposes. “King had reason enough to be provoked, time and again. He was physically threatened and attacked by bigoted people, repeatedly jailed by state authorities (sometimes on trivial traffic violations), harassed by the FBI and even vilified by fellow black leaders who preferred more aggressive forms of resistance.”




Wadhwa then quoted from King’s autobiography, in which the civil rights leader recorded how he admonished himself, “You must not harbor anger.... You must be willing to suffer the anger of the opponent, and yet not return anger. You must not become bitter.” The professor concluded: “Only by taming his own anger did King earn the right to become a messenger of peaceful struggle to the people of the nation.”8




When we intentionally develop our character, we strengthen our frailties, tame our vices, and prepare ourselves to fulfill our personal leadership role.




Character Prevents a Leader from Hurting Those Around Him




A leader’s fall can deeply hurt those close to him and others who have put their trust in him. It can destroy not only his life but also the lives of his victims, the families of his victims, his own family members, his associates, and his associates’ families. Returning to the example of Bernie Madoff, the businessman’s investors were afflicted with shock, anger, and economic devastation due to his Ponzi scam, as many of them lost much or all of their life savings.




Moreover, not one member of Madoff’s family was present in the courtroom to support him when he was sentenced to the longest prison term for fraud ever given.9 Either he had alienated them by his deception, or they were afraid to be seen with him.




In addition, tragedy has stricken the former tycoon’s family. His older son, Mark, committed suicide on the two-year anniversary of his father’s arrest.10 His younger son, Andrew, is currently fighting stage IV cancer of the blood. He had been in remission from the disease, but he feels that “the stress and shame that he dealt with after hearing about his father’s...Ponzi scheme caused his cancer to surface again.” He declared, “Even on my deathbed I will never forgive him for what he did.”11 Once more, our personal behavior often has consequences for others. We can jeopardize their futures, as well as our own.




The only way to stay focused on your vision and keep moving forward in the midst of the inevitable stress, criticism, attacks, temptations, and setbacks that come with leadership is to develop personal character. The only way to contribute meaningfully to your generation is to maintain character.




What do you want to achieve? What do you want to contribute to the world? Character will pave the way to its fulfillment and also protect it.




No Substitute




We are living in difficult social and economic times when we must refocus on the priority of character—because character is the foundation for all aspects of effective leadership.




Authority, gifts, skill, knowledge, experience, expertise, and so forth are integral elements of leadership, but they can never substitute for character. Unless we want to see the conditions of our world grow increasingly worse, and unless we disregard the lives and legacies of our leaders—and that includes us—we can’t move into the future with the same methods and values of leadership that we’re employing today. The public has been learning bad habits from its leaders. We must have a course correction—and it must start with each one of us.

Character is the foundation for all aspects of effective leadership.




We face a great “war” today: the struggle between character and compromise. I believe character will ultimately win, as more and more leaders commit to becoming ethically conscious and principled, because true character rests on a strong foundation that has the power to defeat compromise.




All leaders should be encouraged to value integrity so that they will not turn away from their ethical standards and thereby sacrifice the great potential they possess. Those in high office and in other visible positions must take this truth especially to heart. Engineers know that the taller the building, the deeper the foundation must be. Similarly, the more exposure a leader has to the public—the more fame he acquires, the more influence he exerts—the more vigilant he must be to maintain deep, well-established character.




Your Leadership Rests on Your Character




Despite current trends, it is possible for leaders to have character in the twenty-first century. We have many examples of people from former times who faced similar challenges with conviction and who can inspire and encourage us. Think of Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks became a leader simply by insisting on being treated equally when she rode the city bus. She refused to sacrifice her principles on the altar of convenience or compromise.




No matter in what domain you are a leader—financial, political, educational, religious, medical, corporate, scientific, artistic, and so forth—your leadership rests on your character. In The Power of Character in Leadership, we will explore...




What character, or moral force, is, and how to develop it.




How your beliefs shape your values, morals, ethics, and principles.




How to build your leadership so that it is both effective and enduring.




How to develop specific qualities of principled leaders.

How to be restored after a failure in character.




You will be challenged to assess the strength of your current beliefs and values, and to make a new or renewed personal commitment to ethical leadership. This will necessitate making changes in your life. Yet change is the best thing that can happen to us when we take what is weak and make it strong, and when we take something good and make it even better.




Character matters to you because...




1. It establishes and strengthens your inner life, so

that you are a person of integrity and honor.




2. It enables you to effectively fulfill your purpose and potential.




3. It protects your leadership and your vision— preventing you from canceling them prematurely, and enabling you to leave a legacy for your own generation and future generations.




Character matters to the world because...




1. It is the key to inspirational leadership. People

need the encouragement and influence of genuine leaders if they are to fulfill their own purposes and live peaceful, productive lives.




2. It safeguards the well-being of those who are under the authority of leaders or are otherwise affected by leaders’ actions and influence.




3. It enables leaders to build and maintain healthy communities while addressing critical problems with ethics and integrity.




Your family, community, and nation need you to be a leader of principle. Guard your character, prizing it as “better than silver or gold.” Learn the theories and practical skills of leadership, but first establish values and ethics that will free you from moral hindrances and empower you to carry out your singular purpose in life.