Leadership & Character | Washington, D.C

A group of Wake Foresters gathered over dinner in Washington, D.C. on February 15, 2019 to discuss Leadership & Character.

Overview and highlights of our Call to Conversation:

• We discussed leadership and character through the lens of our own lived experience, sharing stories of people that have touched our lives – from parents to politicians. One point that was mentioned was that we focused on personal examples. Often we think of leadership as something that we see only in prominent public figures, but our discussion highlighted how important character is in creating “everyday” leaders.
• One of the themes that ran through our discussion was the fact that doing the right thing isn’t easy – often it involves us risking our own self-interest or rising above our own emotions in our interactions with others.
• Another topic we discussed was the idea that neither character nor leadership is static. While we tend to think in binaries (people are good or bad, they are leaders or followers), we discussed that people are often a mix of multiple traits.
• We also discussed how character and leadership are formed. We discussed that it isn’t easy to “teach” character but that by creating learning opportunities we can encourage others to grow. It was pointed out that we don’t always appreciate the learning at the moment, but it is planting the seeds that will allow us to grow.