The The Character Ethic 2 vs. The Personality Ethic – Why Character Trumps Personality
As Stephen Covey writes in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, most of the success literature published in the United States for the first century and a half after 1776 focused on The Character Ethic as being the underlying foundation of how a person can live an influential, successful and happy life.
The The Character Ethic 2 includes primary and universal principles of human success, leadership, and effectiveness including:
The Golden Rule
In these works, it was understood that a person should develop fundamental behaviors like listening, However, shortly after World War I, Covey explains, the basic view of success shifted from the The Character Ethic 2 to The Personality Ethic.
In these works, the approach behind success shifted to focusing on personality techniques – as opposed to character building.
In short, the focus shifted from building the primary human character traits listed above to simply improving secondary behavior skills — for example The Character Ethic 2:
While some of this newer literature briefly discussed the importance of character, it became mostly lip service – as long as you say and do the right things and package yourself in the right ways, you will be likely to get the results you want.
Since I was born in the late 1960’s, I had virtually no experience with the success literature from the earlier, Character Era.
Instead, I was raised on a steady diet of Personality.
All of the success books I read or listened to said that you should smile, dress nice, say and do the right things – and if you look good and appear interested in other people, you can pretty much get what you want in life.
I had unwittingly been taught to try and control, manipulate, and maneuver my way through life – without ever taking into account Who I Really Am or what I actually wanted to do.
It occurred to me that this was the height of irony – because, as all these books and programs had been telling us on one hand that this is the way to “get what you want in life”…
The hidden – or no-so-hidden – message in all of these programs is also — Fake it until you make it.
Wow. That was a stunning realization for me.
Because I was shocked to realize that while I had been mostly faking my way through life – because I had no idea who I was or what I really wanted…
I also realized how many people I had been manipulated by, who had done the exact same thing to ME – because we’d all been reading the same The Character Ethic 2 books!
All I had ever tried to do was change my personality…
Because that’s what all those books told me to do.
The fact is, in all these books, I never heard anyone talk about what character IS or how important it is – or even mention that you should have it as The Character Ethic 2.
Today, however, as I teach my clients in my online courses like Power Habits® Academy as well as my coaching programs, every day I see more and more how important it is to get back to The Character Ethic 2.
So how do we do that?
As Stephen Covey (my first unofficial mentor) often said (I’m paraphrasing): “The fastest way to build character is to make a promise and keep it.”
In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey also wrote about the P/PC Balance, which means Production vs. Production Capacity — and represents this through the fable of The Goose and The Golden Egg.
When I discovered Covey and his book, that’s when I learned the term paradigm, meaning “the perspective with which you see the world.” Your paradigm is your map of the universe.
Now we hear the term paradigm shift everywhere from the world of business to philosophy to human communication of every kind.
Even before he got to Habit 1 – Be Proactive, Covey wrote about why each habit is important – for example:
Because isn’t it true that the most important – and easiest to judge – measure of a person’s character is to see if they do what they say they’re going to do.
There’s another old saying: “After all is said and done, more is said than done.”
Ain’t THAT the truth!
It’s so easy to SAY you’re going to do something…
“I’m going to write my book… I’m going to fix the lawnmower… I’m going to get in shape…”
But when push comes to shove, and the going gets tough, that’s when our WORDS tend to fall short of our ACTIONS.
“Oh, I’ll write when I feel inspired… I’ve got some important TV watching to do…”
By the way, have you ever noticed when the going gets tough?
Exactly – all the time!
There are always roadblocks, reversals, things we didn’t expect that come up.
That’s called LIFE.
And the truth is that most people would rather have EXCUSES than SUCCESS.
So ask yourself a simple question: “Would I rather have excuses or success?”
And for the word success – just substitute what you want – e.g., money, health, happiness, peace of mind…
The truth is, there are always excuses not to take action.
Excuses are EASY.
Excuses, however, are just another form of letting ourselves be run by FEAR and letting our lives be guided by fear – the belief in “not-enough.”
Yet as Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “Inside of us, we know that on the other side of fear lies freedom.”
Noah St. John Note: Living from The Personality Ethic without seeking to live from The Character Ethic 2 is like trying to build your house on a foundation of sand. The personal challenge for each of us – and the key to true greatness, personal development and influence – is to seek constant improvement and balance between The Character Ethic 2 and Personality Ethics.
Contact us at Speakers Inc and follow us on Twitter
The Character Ethic 2 belongs to these Categories
As a keynote speaker on the topics of leadership, connection, resilience, and relationships, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about empathy versus compassion over the past year and Why Leaders Must Choose Compassion Over Empathy. In fact, in my virtual presentations on personal connection, I quickly became aware of the buzzwords associated with […]
Last month, something happened to me at an event that hasn’t happened in well over a decade and How to Overcome the Fear of Public Speaking. I wish it were something cool like audience members throwing money and candy at me as they cheered “Bravo!” and “Encore!” But that’s never happened, and probably never will. […]
In the vibrant city of #1 Leadership Speakers San Diego, where innovation meets opportunity, the demand for inspirational and transformational leadership is ever-present. Whether you’re organizing a corporate conference, a professional development seminar, or a community event, the inclusion of dynamic leadership speakers can elevate the experience and leave a lasting impact on attendees. With […]
Diversity training is valuable for increasing inclusion and fostering a more positive work environment. But not all diversity training is created equal. In order to be effective, diversity training should include certain key elements that can benefit your participants and your organization as a whole. For example, many organizations focus exclusively on race or ethnicity […]
I have worked with corporate teams that measure Leadership Effectiveness and what seems like everything. My concern with these teams isn’t what they are measuring, but rather what they are not measuring – leadership effectiveness. Teams measure on-time delivery, sales call per day, employee engagement, and so many more useful metrics. I’ve even seen a […]
In other words, workers burned out by the “hustle culture” so recently prevalent have decided to either quit their jobs — or perhaps even more damaging to businesses — disengage themselves from where they are working. In a brilliant article in a recent edition of the Wall St. Journal, Lindsay Ellis and Angela Yang reveal that what we’ve been […]
Speakers Inc International is a Professional Speakers Bureau, based in San Diego. Speakers Inc has branches in USA and Southern Africa. We were started a little over 24 years ago by Bronwyn. Our mission is to help our clients find the best, most suitable SPEAKERS for their particular conference or event. We represent South Africa’s […]
Navigating Tomorrow: The Future of Hybrid Event Planning In the ever-evolving landscape of event planning, the emergence of hybrid events has marked a paradigm shift in how we gather, connect, and share experiences. As the world continues to grapple with the implications of a global pandemic, the hybrid model has proven to be more than […]
No results available
ResetOur Mission:
© All rights reserved 2024. Designed using Voxel
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional | 11 months | The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". |
viewed_cookie_policy | 11 months | The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data. |