Leadership & Character | Newport Beach, CA
A group of Wake Foresters gathered over dinner in Newport Beach, CA on April 30, 2018 to discuss Leadership & Character.
Overview and highlights of our Call to Conversation:
- Our conversation began with some wonderful examples of character in action that highlight what defines good character in both family/friends or strangers we’ve never met. Some key words from those stories include: honesty, maturity, humility, teamwork, commitment, selflessness, kindness, inclusiveness, fairness, bravery, and respectfulness.
Some important themes from our conversation included:
- Good character is contagious
- We need time to stop, slow down, and reflect
- You can influence others, both when they’re watching or not watching you
- It’s important to have courage and vulnerability, knowing you might fail
We talked about the benefits and dangers of various forms of social media, using some recent events on campus as fodder to spark discussion. One of my favorite lines of the evening: tools change but character is constant. This is especially true through the discussion of community: are we more grounded or less grounded in a transient community? Despite living in a world where we’re surrounded by bad news, there is factual evidence supporting the claim that we’re living in the best time our world has seen in generations. Do we start with the assumption of good?