'Leaders need to demonstrate sound judgment, and character contributes to that judgment,' says Canadian researcher
A recent report by Canadian researchers is suggesting that character – as opposed to competence – is foundational to effective leadership, and correlated to positive business outcomes.
As co-author Gerard Seijts, professor of organisational behaviour at Ivey Business School points out, character is more than a soft skill—it’s measurable, impactful, and essential to effective leadership.
"We have now plenty of studies that show that sure, competencies are critically important. But that’s also true of character," says Seijts. "Good leadership is always a function of competencies, commitment to the role of leadership, doing the hard work of leadership, and then the character piece."
High character leads to more effective problem-solving
The study highlights that character was found to predict stress-coping strategies in a study of recruits at a Canadian police college. Leaders who demonstrated high character scores actively engaged in problem-solving and reframed challenges in positive ways — two coping strategies proven to lower stress.
The study found that among participants with high character scores, active problem-solving averaged at 1.63 out of a possible 3, while avoidance—a negative coping response—remained low, averaging 0.70.
“Active problem-solving is a positive stress coping response, right? Problem reappraisal, to see the good in the challenge, is a positive response as well,” says Seijts.
“Avoidance is a negative coping response; it doesn't solve anything. So our hypothesis, or the expectation, was that those individuals with well-developed character are in a better position to utilize or to activate these positive stress coping responses, because in many ways, they show higher courage.”
Character versus competency in leadership qualities
In a world where rapid decision-making is often necessary, the emphasis on skills alone can fall short, Seijts says, explaining that leaders who demonstrate high levels of integrity, courage, and temperance contribute to positive workplace outcomes like well-being, job commitment, and ethical behaviour among employees.
When high character is present in leaders, it provides a balancing force, even enhancing existing skills.
"In organisations, people need to demonstrate good judgment. I mean, judgment is everything—the quality of the decisions in recruitment, in leading change, in strategy implementation, in difficult conversations to help people develop their own leadership," says Seijts.
"The global financial crisis was the result of character, or lack of character, right? People had demonstrated tremendous drive, lots of courage, but in the absence of temperance, restrained self-control, patience, oftentimes that leads to reckless behaviour and poor judgment. Leaders need to demonstrate good or sound judgment, and character contributes to that judgment.”
Why character matters to organisations
Character in leaders has real, measurable benefits for organisations, Seijts says, explaining how his research shows a positive correlation between character and psychological capital, both of which predicted effective stress management responses among leaders.
"People talk a lot about communication… but without the courage to communicate, people will never be a strong communicator," he says, underlining that character traits such as courage and integrity are what drive the effective use of technical skills in real-world scenarios.
Leaders high in character were more likely to reappraise challenges positively and engage directly with difficult issues. By contrast, low character scores were associated with avoidance, a coping strategy that can lead to team frustration and disengagement.
“When you score leaders on their character, and you relate it to variables that are important to individuals and organizations – like well-being, like organizational commitment on the part of employees, like ethical behaviours – we can safely say that leader character matters. It facilitates positive outcomes for the leader and for the employees,” Seijt says.
“For that reason, it's important to elevate a conversation about the importance of character in leadership and leadership development.”
Character in leaders to counter groupthink
By encouraging diverse perspectives and challenging groupthink, leaders with strong character help teams leverage their collective intelligence for better decision-making; in this way, character’s influence extends to fostering a healthy organisational culture as well, Seijt says.
"Groupthink is this concurrence-seeking tendency where we simply go along with the majority opinion in order to get along with our colleagues, but when we do this, we sacrifice quality of decision-making."
However, leaders who have high levels of character can mitigate this effect by promoting open discussions and constructive disagreement.
“Part of good judgment is to have access to good information. We need to facilitate conversations where people are candid. Candour is part of integrity. We need integrity in organizations, because without it, candid conversations will never take place,” he says.
“But these kinds of conversations, with tremendous candour, take a great amount of courage, to tell people that perhaps the way they addressed a particular customer was not exactly proper, courage to let people know that they didn't get a promotion, and here's why. So courage is profoundly important, where we need candid conversations.”
Assessing character in the workplace
While assessing character may seem challenging, tools and assessment frameworks are available to HR professionals. Seijts and his team used the Leader Character Insight Assessment (LCIA) in their research, measuring specific character dimensions across multiple cohorts of police recruits.
This tool helped uncover which leaders possessed high character strengths in areas like accountability, humility, and courage, and highlighted developmental areas for others.
"You need the conversation piece. You need the assessment instrument," Seijts notes, adding that using tools like the LCIA makes it easier for leaders to understand their character profile and work on specific growth areas.
“We have this instrument, both in self-assessment and peer assessment. We work now with organizations where leaders are interested to develop a better understanding of who they are, and from a character point, where their Achilles heel is, so to speak,” he says.
“’I know that, you know, my drive might be high, but where are my areas for development?’”
Seijts emphasises that leaders should not be expected to excel across all character dimensions. Instead, the assessment data allows for a targeted development approach, much like how organisations might train in communication or negotiation skills; by creating this structured feedback loop, HR can ensure that leaders are equipped to grow and adapt to complex demands over time.
"Every leader has both strengths and weaknesses. It is very hard to come up with a leader who excels in all of these … dimensions of leader character".
