School of Management and EntrepreneurshipGautam Budh Nagar, U.P., 201314

ContentsCharacter is the Key...............................................................................................................................3

Leadership Development: Assignment -II

Submitted toProf Arvind Shatdal

ByGroup 1

(Rahul Sheoran,Nakul Paruthi,

Mohsinuz Zamaan Khan,Hitesh Sharma,

Gaurav Kacholia,Akshat Paliwal,

Amritanshu Shekhar)

Arguments.............................................................................................................................................4

Focus Area.............................................................................................................................................5

Integrity.................................................................................................................................................6

Factors...............................................................................................................................................6

Activity...............................................................................................................................................6

Expected Outcome............................................................................................................................7

Collaboration.........................................................................................................................................9

Factors...............................................................................................................................................9

Activity.............................................................................................................................................10

Expected Outcome..........................................................................................................................10

Judgement...........................................................................................................................................11

Factors.............................................................................................................................................11

Activity.............................................................................................................................................11

Arguments.......................................................................................................................................12

Expected Outcome..........................................................................................................................13

Accountability......................................................................................................................................14

Factors.............................................................................................................................................15

Activity.............................................................................................................................................15

Expected Outcome..........................................................................................................................16

References...........................................................................................................................................17

Character is the Key

The Ivey School of Business published a paper in 2010 called “Leadership On Trial”.

According to the research, there are three pillars of leadership: Character, Competency, and

Commitment. Competency and commitment are more straightforward and understood as a basis for

successful leadership. Building competency requires education and experience, but it is fairly easy to

measure and recognize when it is achieved. Commitment describes the level of dedication an

individual has to a team or a project, or what a person is willing to give up and sacrifice to be

successful. Although competency and commitment are crucial attributes of a leader, they act only as

a basic prerequisite. Character is the foundation that enables the potential for success as a leader

and is often the most challenging to measure or detect (www.qbreview.org, 2015).

As per the research of Ivey business journal, the failures of leadership points to issues

around character as a central theme (www.ivey.uwo.ca, 2011). We want to focus on leadership

Character, not because it is more important than competencies and commitment, but because it is

the most difficult to define, measure, assess and develop.

Nowhere was this more obvious than in the financial crisis of 2008 – 2009, in which boldness

succeeded over restraint. People who knew that bad risks were being taken did not have the

courage to speak up, and people without integrity sold mortgages to those who could not pay them.

They then bundled these mortgages into securities that were fake and sold to others. Leaders of

large, global companies knew about these types of practices yet did nothing to stop them. Still

others were unable to create the honest, transparent corporate culture that would enable them to

be in touch with what was happening deep down in the organization. All these behaviours and

activities were, essentially, failings of character (iveybusinessjournal, 2012) .

As per the Research there are 11 dimensions and elements of Character namely

(iveybusinessjournal, 2012):

Humility is essential to learning and becoming a better leader

Integrity is essential to building trust and encouraging others to collaborate

Collaboration enables teamwork

Justice yields decisions that are accepted as legitimate and reasonable by others

Courage help leaders make difficult decisions and challenge the decisions or actions of

others

Temperance ensures that leaders take reasonable risks

Accountability ensures that leaders own and commit to the decisions they make and

encourage the same in others

Humanity builds empathy and understanding of others

Transcendence equips the leader with a sense of optimism and purpose

Judgment allows leaders to balance and integrate these virtues in ways that serve the needs

of multiple stakeholders in and outside their organizations

Arguments (Gerard Seijts, 2014)

In order to explore the importance of the 11 character dimensions, the impact they perceive

the dimensions have on Leader Performance and Leader Out-comes, survey was carried out by Ivey

Business School (Gerard Seijts, 2014), by sending survey to 700 employees in leadership positions,

out of which 500 respondents replied. Primary job functions of respondents covered a wide array of

functional disciplines including accounting, operations and training. 22 respondents were executive

leaders, 131 respondents were first-level leaders, and 227 respondents were leaders of leaders.

Survey contained 2 questions impact of the character dimensions on

1. Leader performance

2. Leader outcomes

For 1st question 5 aspects was listed:

Getting employee engagement

Being an effective team member

Building high performance teams

Developing leadership in others

Developing further as leaders themselves

For 2nd question again 5 aspects was listed:

Achieving superior results

Making better decisions

Being perceived by others as a good leader

Being given opportunities to lead

Being successful in one's leader-ship career

Based on the mean value alone, leaders see all 11 character dimensions as beneficial to

leader performance and outcomes. However, some dimensions are seen as having more impact on

some performance and outcome measures than others.

Across the five measures of Leader Performance - Drive, Accountability and Integrity stood

out as highest. The character dimension of Transcendence scored lowest across all performance

measures. Respondents saw Integrity as especially beneficial for getting employee engagement;

Collaboration and Accountability as beneficial for being an effective team member; Integrity and

Accountability for developing leadership in others; Drive, Collaboration and Integrity for building

high performance teams; and Drive and Accountability to develop further as a leader.

Across all five measures of Leader Outcomes - Drive, Integrity, Accountability and

Judgment stood out as the most beneficial. The following four character dimensions scored

consistently low: Transcendence, Temperance, Humanity, and Humility. Respondents see Drive as

especially beneficial for achieving superior results, getting opportunities to lead, and being

successful in one's leadership career; Judgment as beneficial for making better decisions; and Drive,

Integrity, Accountability and Judgment as beneficial for being perceived by others as a good leader.

Some interesting patterns emerged. First, there was a fairly consistent pattern across the three

levels of leadership, in that Accountability, Integrity and Drive consistently received the highest

ratings. Second, the results showed that respondents view Humility, Humanity, Justice, and

Temperance as less beneficial for the leader performance and outcome measures with the increase

in leadership level.

Focus Area

As per the results and analysis gathered from the survey above, discussion in our group and our

observation of the class as well as us, the following 4 dimensions of character requires most

attention:

1. Integrity

2. Collaboration

3. Judgement

4. Accountability

Integrity

Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral

uprightness. It is generally a personal choice to uphold oneself to consistently moral and ethical

standards (Integrity: Doing the Right Thing for the Right Reason, 2010)

It is viewed by numerous individuals as the trustworthiness and honesty or exactness of

one's activities. Integrity can remain contrary to deception, in that judging with the models of

trustworthiness includes viewing inward consistency as a virtue, and proposes that gatherings

holding inside themselves obviously clashing qualities ought to represent the disparity or change

their convictions.

Factors

“Levels of your Integrity” helps one to understand the limits of integrity and is inspired from

Lawrence Kohlberg`s theory of Heinz dilemma (Heinz Dilemma, n.d.)

Kohlberg's theory holds that the justification the participant offers is what is significant in

form of their response and from responses six stages are determined:

Obedience

Self-interest

Conformity

Law and order

Human rights

Universal human ethics

Activity for Integrity awareness

Activity

Participants are given certain dilemmas, each participant rates the action taken by character

in dilemma for these activity 5 different points are marked in the classroom and these points

represent positions of strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree & strongly disagree.

Each participant is allowed to move according to their will and discuss with fellow

participants before taking the final stand. Thus, the groups formed at these points will be asked to

defend their choice and few related questions. Now, this activity is repeated with numerous

dilemmas and increasing personal stakes at each dilemma. For example consider the following order

of dilemmas:

X asks his friend Y about his dress for a party, Y realizes that dress is horrible but considering

the huge amount X has paid for it he replies “I love it”

A student is has opted for Non-A/C hostel accommodation, but due to administration`s

ignorance A/C unit is working in his/her room and student doesn`t report the ignorance and

continues to use the facility.

At Office, X realizes that his immediate boss is trying to evade taxes by showing fewer sales

in books .X has tried confronting the boss about the issue before, but the boss will not listen.

If X turns in his boss, the company will likely be shut down and everyone will lose their jobs.

X decides not to say anything to the authorities and let’s his boss continue to skip out on

paying taxes.

In the above situation, due to economic unrest he can`t take a new job and will be left to stay

unemployed or take up a blue collar job.

After this participants should discuss questions related to the process of decision making and

influences they had while making the call. For example:

Why would it sometimes be difficult to determine if something is right or wrong?

When you can`t tell immediately, how do you decide what to do?

What do you think integrity means?

Why is it important for us to have integrity?

While making a decision did consider yourself or others as well?

Why do people sometimes do what they know is wrong?

Where you influenced by peer pressure? And can think of examples where others were

influenced?

Expected Outcome

Participants can measure their responses according to Kohlberg`s theory or simply make to

note where they think their stakes overlook integrity. For improving their decision making and

making better integral choices ethical frameworks (like The Consequentialist Framework; The Duty

Framework; and the Virtue Framework) can be used and therefore, participants can refer to these

frameworks and decide whether their decisions had these elements.

The chart below is designed to highlight the main contrasts between the three frameworks:

(framework-making-ethical-decisions, n.d.)

Consequentialist Duty Virtue

Deliberative

process

What kind of

outcomes should I

produce (or try to

produce)?

What are my

obligations in

this situation,

and what are

the things I

should never

do?

What kind of person

should I be (or try to

be), and what will

my actions show

about my character?

Focus Directs attention to

the future effects of

an action, for all

people who will be

directly or indirectly

affected by the action.

Directs

attention to the

duties that exist

prior to the

situation and

determines

obligations.

Attempts to discern

character traits

(virtues and vices)

that are, or could be,

motivating the

people involved in

the situation.

Definition of

Ethical

Conduct

Ethical conduct is the

action that will

achieve the best

consequences.

Ethical conduct

involves always

doing the right

thing: never

failing to do

one's duty.

Ethical conduct is

whatever a fully

virtuous person

would do in the

circumstances.

Motivation Aim is to produce the

most good.

Aim is to

perform the

right action.

Aim is to develop

one’s character.

Collaboration

It is a recursive process where two or more people or organization work together to realize

shared goals. This is more than the intersection of common goals seen in co-operative ventures, but

a deep, collective determination to reach an identical objective. (Collaboration- wiki, n.d.)

Factors contributing to Collaboration: (Factors for Collaboration, n.d.)

Select the right team leader

Select the right team member

Prepare the Team

Prepare Team Charter

Document and Monitor Progress

Recognise achievement

Collaborative learning is known with various names viz. co-operative learning, collective

learning, peer learning, peer teaching but if we analyze on a wider scale, it propagates working

together to achieve a common goal.

Here, we will focus on peer learning, peer teaching and group learning. In collaborative learning

students are actively exchanging thoughts, debating or negotiating ideas with their peers and as a

result increasing their interest in the subject. Moreover, engaging into the discussions with peers

impacts the critical thinking of individuals in a positive manner (Totten, Sills, Digby & Russ, 1991).

According to Johnson and Johnson (1986), there is persuasive evidence that cooperative teams

achieve at higher levels of thought and retain information longer than students who work quietly as

individuals. (Collaborative Learning, n.d.)

Henry Ford says “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is a progress. Working together

is a success.”

Activity

My neighbour’s notes:

Ask every person in the group to share his/her class notes with the neighbour after an

important topic has been discussed. Each person would have a different style of filtering information

in the notes. The idea is to understand the different points that the other person has noted and

understand/investigate the reason why that point did not strike in your mind. With this, every

person would be able to broaden his/her mind-set and would think of problems from a different

perspective. This would lead to an increase in the overall development of the class.

Expected Outcome

Bound to think more critically

Evaluation of other’s ideas

Development of interpersonal & Leadership skills

Exposure to diverse perspectives

Preparation for real life social and employment situations

Increase in responsibility

Judgement

Judgment means the ability to judge, make a decision, or form an opinion objectively,

authoritatively, and wisely, especially in matters affecting action, good sense, discretion.

Factors Contributing to Judgment: (Factors contributing to Judgement, n.d.)

Go and See: The seeing part can be tricky. Lots of things obstruct our vision, our ability

to see facts. Practice seeing facts, setting aside your opinions and assumptions and

simply SEE

Get the facts: The need to evaluate the facts that you are seeing and choose which ones

are the best

Grasp the situation: When you grasp something, no one can take it away from you. It

becomes yours to use. That is the idea here: grasp the situation by evaluating the facts

Consider people: As you get the facts and grasp the situation, remember that the people

involved are simply human. They have cultural norms in behaviour and mind-sets and

even in values

Passion: When you are making a judgment, are you willing to suffer the consequences of

your decision, or is that fear of criticism influencing the way you decide?

Patience: Good, sound, considered decisions take time. Be patient as you learn – suffer

to get it right by slowing down

Activity

The Judgment Race

Choose 4 team-leaders for this activity and ask them to select 1 member each turn for

the team

Each should have equal number of girls (2 girls each)

Inform all the teams that in this activity we will have a relay race (100 m * no. of

members in each team)

Now give a paper and pen to each and every member and ask them to mention the

estimated time in which each team could complete the race

Allow each member 5 minutes to complete this task

Collect all the papers and keep them aside

Now let each team race simultaneously and notice their time to complete the race

Once all teams have completed the race, check the papers and find out that which

members judgment was the most precise

Also, ask a few members about what was in their minds from the beginning and how did

they made a judgment of time of each team

Arguments (How this activity helps in building Judgment Skills?)

The Activity is based on a theory called Social Judgment Theory (SJT). SJT is a self-persuasion

theory proposed by Carolyn Sherif, Muzafer Sherif, and Carl Hovland, defined by Sherif and Sherif as

the perception and evaluation of an idea by comparing it with current attitudes. It is a framework

that studies human judgment. It is a meta-theory that directs research on cognitive perspective,

which is how you perceive the situations. With the person’s preferred position serving as the

judgmental anchor, SJT is a theory that mainly focuses on the internal processes of a person's own

judgment in regards to the relation within a communicated message. (Social Judgement Theory,

n.d.)

Social Judgment theory proposes the idea that persuasion is a two-step process. The first

step involves individuals hearing or reading a message and immediately evaluating where the

message falls within their own position. The second step involves individuals adjusting their

particular attitude either toward or away from the message they heard. (Social Judgement, n.d.)

In this activity most of the members will act spontaneously and would not think about each

member while analysing the time of each team which according to SJT is also the first step to

develop judgment skills in an individual. However, each individual needs to see and evaluate all the

members, make decisions within the limit of 5 minutes, keep patience and analyse all the teams.

Individuals would also understand that this was not a race to win however the actual task was

something different. Hence, in future each individual would try to adjust his/her attitude according

to the given situation rather than responding spontaneously.

Expected Outcome

Individuals would understand that it’s important to respond to any situation rather than

reacting instantaneously

One would learn to see the circumstances than just make assumptions

It teaches that we should consider all the people rather than just some key members,

before making our judgement

We would learn to make a better judgment without having a fear to loose and hence

would develop our passion for Judgment

It teaches an individual to test his/her own patience before making any Judgment

Accountability

Accountability means having the responsibility and authority to act and fully accept the

natural and logical consequences for the results of those actions.

In a team-based organization, accountability is focused at the team rather than the

individual level. This means that the members of the team feel mutually accountable to each other

and that the team as a whole, not any one or two individuals within it, accepts accountability for the

results of the team's actions. (http://teambuildersplus.com/articles/accountability-sticky-subject-

for-teams, n.d.)

Key Shifts: (building_an_accountable_culture, n.d.)

From Non Accountable To Accountable

Externalizing …………………………….Internalizing the Need for Change

Blaming Others …………....................Taking Accountability

Doing the Job …………………….........Achieving the result

Working in Silos …………………………....Collaborating

Telling People What to Do ………………...............Engaging the hearts and mind of people

Factors

Creating Accountability: Eliminating the Blame Game (https://hbr.org/2010/05/how-to-

stop-the-blame-game, n.d.)

Don’t blame others for your mistakes. The temptation is huge to point the finger elsewhere

when you make a mistake. Resist it. Not only will you gain respect and loyalty from your

followers, you’ll also help to prevent a culture of blame from emerging.

When you do blame, do so constructively. There are times when people’s mistakes really do

need to be surfaced in public. In these cases, make sure to highlight that the goal is to learn

from mistakes, not to publicly humiliate those who make them.

Set an example by confidently taking ownership for failures. Our findings showed that

blame was contagious, but not among those who felt psychologically secure. So try to foster

a chronic sense of inner security in order to reduce the chances that you’ll lash out at others.

Always focus on learning. Creating a culture where learning — rather than avoiding

mistakes — is the top priority will help to ensure that people feel free talk about and learn

from their errors.

Activity for creating accountability:

Divide the class in groups of 6 to 8

Give each student in a group a list of item which he/she need to search.

Ask the groups to search the listed items in the specific area and try to find their next

clue in the specific time limit

The members of each group or pair must determine which specific items each person

must search for.

This way, every player is held accountable for finding or failing to find certain items of

the list.

The team to find the most items within an hour are the winner

Expected Outcome

This activity focuses on observation and description, as well as creative interpretation.

Whether student write out the clues themselves or decipher clues provided by others, they are

compelled to examine their surroundings in close detail, and to open their imaginations to visualizing

their world in new and diverse ways. Also by doing this activity students will realize that if they fail,

they will be accountable for the failure of the team but if they all succeed, it’s a win for the whole

team.

Referencesbuilding_an_accountable_culture. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.fmi.org/docs/fc_presentations/building_an_accountable_culture_white_paper.pdf?sfvrsn=2: http://www.fmi.org/docs/fc_presentations/building_an_accountable_culture_white_paper.pdf?sfvrsn=2

Collaboration- wiki. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration

Collaborative Learning. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/v7n1/gokhale.jte-v7n1.html: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/v7n1/gokhale.jte-v7n1.html

Factors contributing to Judgement. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.engagingkcoe.com: http://www.engagingkcoe.com

Factors for Collaboration. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://redbooth.com/blog/6-factors-that-contribute-to-successful-online-collaboration: https://redbooth.com/blog/6-factors-that-contribute-to-successful-online-collaboration

framework-making-ethical-decisions. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.brown.edu/academics/science-and-technology-studies/framework-making-ethical-decisions: http://www.brown.edu/academics/science-and-technology-studies/framework-making-ethical-decisions

Gerard Seijts, J. G. (2014). Character Matters : Character Dimensions - Impact on Leader Performance and Outcomes. Ontario, Canada: Elsevier/Science Direct.

Heinz Dilemma. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_dilemma: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_dilemma

http://teambuildersplus.com/articles/accountability-sticky-subject-for-teams. (n.d.). Retrieved from Team Builder: http://teambuildersplus.com/articles/accountability-sticky-subject-for-teams

https://hbr.org/2010/05/how-to-stop-the-blame-game. (n.d.). Retrieved from HBR: https://hbr.org/2010/05/how-to-stop-the-blame-game

(2010). Integrity: Doing the Right Thing for the Right Reason. McGill-Queen's University Press.

iveybusinessjournal. (2012, February). Developing Leadership Character. Retrieved from http://iveybusinessjournal.com: http://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/developing-leadership-character/

Social Judgement. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.uky.edu/~drlane/capstone/persuasion/socjud.htm: http://www.uky.edu/~drlane/capstone/persuasion/socjud.htm

Social Judgement Theory. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_judgment_theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_judgment_theory

www.ivey.uwo.ca. (2011, Sep 12). Creating the ideas and insights of leader character. Retrieved from http://www.ivey.uwo.ca/: http://www.ivey.uwo.ca/leadership/research/

www.qbreview.org. (2015, April 2). The Importance of Character in Leadership. Retrieved from http://www.qbreview.org/: http://www.qbreview.org/the-importance-of-character-in-leadership/