Characteristics of Defining Moments

In a previous message on Defining Moments, Pivotal Decisions, I (Cindy) shared the importance of defining moments and how our decisions in the moment shape the future of our leadership.  

Let’s go deeper into the impact our character and values have on the outcome of those defining moments we’ll have throughout our leadership. 

Since our defining moments reveal who we are, we have to start with character and consider our values.  Character is who we are on the inside and our values system guides our behavior that demonstrates our character.  There’s a natural human desire to at least at some level and from time to time, be concerned about how we look on the outside.  The slippery slope starts when we are more concerned about what’s on the outside than on the inside.  As a matter of fact, that slope can quickly become a cliff.

A recent Sigma Systems article shared this:

Research has shown that leadership character is positively correlated with measures of success.  Leaders who score highly on character dimensions are less likely to report symptoms of burnout, and more likely to be engaged and satisfied with their jobs. Not only that, leadership character is also positively correlated with supervisor ratings of promotability, likelihood of success on different teams, and overall leadership effectiveness.

If you are reading this, you’ve likely seen many devastating effects the lack of character in leadership brings.  And many more positive effects that great character in leadership offer…so that’s good news! 

Remember the Enron Scandal? In a nutshell, Enron executives used fraudulent accounting practices to keep huge debts off the balance sheets and to inflate the companies revenues.  The outcome was tragic.  Shareholders lost $74 billion dollars, Enron collapsed, and in the weeks and months afterward, countless executives, staff, family members, and clients and customers shared stories of financial loss, opportunity loss, and deep hardship from the fallout of the character flaws demonstrated. That was close to two decades ago.

More recently, is the FTX collapse which was a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme.  According to Investopedia, bankruptcy filings are indicating a loss of over 50 billion although the final outcome is expected to be higher. 

Why am I sharing these huge, devastating losses?  Because these events that ruin reputations, wipe out organizations, and hurt many people in the process, do not happen because of character flaws that had not occurred before.  By the time companies and lives are negatively impacted at these levels - and smaller levels - there have been multiple defining moments where those in positions of leadership could have chosen to make quality, character filled decisions but allowed small slips in character lead to massive lack of character choices.  Eventually everyone lost.

The Proverbs writer shared, as we thinketh in our heart, so are we.  This idea has been confirmed by other wise writers and confirmed by modern science!  Doctors even note the impact positive attitude and hope have on healing.  What’s on the inside of us influences the outside in many ways and our defining moments are no different. 

When looking at characteristics of defining moments we learn they remind us how significantly the inside influences the outside.  The very foundation of what comes from the inside of us is based on our character and values.  And as seen in Leadership Gold, the characteristics of our defining moments show us who we really are, declare to others who we are, and they determine who we will become.  Sounds like something we need to dive into deeper!