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Society & Culture
Leadership
Philosophy of Leadership

“Every so often, a friend and I indulge a favorite argument. The debate is over what matters more when it comes to leadership: Character, or competence? While we both have similar worldviews, I have contended that character matters more, while my friend argues for the greater worth of competence.” - Ref21

Discussion

Thu, 09/24/20

It’s kind of an odd question… you’re not going to have perfection in either one and there is no zero sum on either of them either. So… there is no reason to chose one instead of the other.

But given that a real leader is going to have a good measure of both, and if you assume he’s going to have more of one than the other (why assume this? … but I’m trying to play along), which would be more important? I’m on the character side. This may not get better results. It’s not all about results…. I feel like I want to start a global advocacy group: “Non-results Matter.”

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.

Thu, 09/24/20

I’d settle for either these days….

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.

Thu, 09/24/20

Can’t argue with that!

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.

Fri, 09/25/20

Gonna walk back my first comment; competence without character was a hallmark of a government that ran Germany from 1933 to 1945. So as long as we don’t have character in the Oval Office, let’s pray we don’t have competence, either.

Scary that I am all but endorsing Mussolini, in effect, to avoid Schicklgruber.

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.

Thu, 10/01/20

Yes, BJU was slightly obsessed with posting Bob Jones, Sr. aphorisms around campus. But some of the aphorisms were spot-on.

“You can borrow brains, but you can’t borrow character.”

Yes. Someone with good character can outsource for the needed expertise.

Michael Osborne
Philadelphia, PA