While management is about skills, leadership is about character.

Author and lecturer Jim Hunter has written and spoken extensively about this idea for more than twenty years as he has refined the concept of “servant leadership”. He says that leadership is much deeper than style or personality – leadership is about character, which he describes as “the world between stimulus and response.”

“Character is doing the right thing even when you don’t feel like it – especially when you don’t feel like it. I’m not sure you can call it character,” Jim Hunter says “unless it costs you something.”

He also describes authority as “the skill of getting people willingly to do your will because of your personal influence.”

In other words, leadership is inspiring others because of who you are.

To be a great leader, then, is to be a person of great moral character, who genuinely cares about people, and acts in a way that is an inspiration to others.

Sovran’s LEADERSHIP EXCELLENCE program helps participants explore the character of the leader. In a series of workshops, participants discover the leader within themselves.