Character: Ethics, Authenticity, Altruism, Trust

It’s clear we need a better way to evaluate business leaders. Moving forward, it appears that the new metric of corporate leadership will be closer to this: the extent to which executives create organizations that are economically, ethically, and socially sustainable.

--Harvard Business Review, June 2009

At the Summit Discovery Institute, we believe in leading organizations at a higher level. This means both at a more capable level and at a higher level of ethical character. Research shows that organizations that have leaders who care more about the organization than about their own careers not only have better organizational success, but also have leaders who achieve greater personal success. The recent debacle of the financial industry, for example, has demonstrated that narcissism and greed are not sustainable. To be sustainable, organizations must do the right thing. They must hire, promote, and retain leaders of character, who lead with ethical integrity and authenticity, who build and engender trust and altruism, and who ultimately do the right thing for the organization, the people in it, and the world in general.

The Practice Area of Character focuses on the following:

1. Conducting applied research on issues of character in organizations to discover and expand upon interdisciplinary approaches to ethics, judgment and decision-making, authenticity, altruism, and trust in the workplace.

2. Developing leading edge theories, techniques, and trends in the area of character in the workplace through publications, white papers, and educational events.

3. Consulting with organizations that need improvement in areas related to character—both private and not-for-profit organizations—using state-of-the art, research backed techniques.

4. Advocating for strength in character in the leadership of organizations around the world.