If you pay attention to the news, you cannot ignore the recent tidal wave of scandal, deception, dishonesty, manipulation, and impropriety. It seems that no segment of our national life is immune—politics (regardless of party), government’s top leaders and seemingly every agency within, law enforcement, financial institutions, corporations, journalism/media, athletics (professional and amateur), entertainment, and even certain religious and other nonprofit organizations.

It is no overstatement that we suffer a profound crisis of character in America today. We should not be surprised, as we have witnessed the progress of cultural decline for many years. However, this trend has accelerated to a point where we simply must forge a consensus around the need for immediate and decisive action to arrest it.

Anyone who cares about our generational survival as a society, much less our prosperity, will assign solutions the highest priority. But, solutions necessarily begin with root cause analysis. Causation is fertile ground for lively debate. I believe any list of causative factors must include denial of God, rejection of absolute truth or standards, and a conviction that ideological ends justify means.

It is strong character rooted in traditional values that made America great. Research continues to show that character matters, and that sound character leads to success as well as the greater good. There have been some excellent initiatives in character education, for example:

• Character First (http://characterfirsteducation.com/c/)
• Strata Leadership, LLC (http://www.strataleadership.com)
• Nathan Mellor (http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/Listen-Up-Corporate-America-Les)
• Ethics and Compliance Initiative (http://www.ethics.org/resource/definitions-values)

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I am especially excited about the fact-based work by Fred Kiel and KRW International. Check out Kiel’s book, just published April 7, 2015 by Harvard Business Review Press: Return on Character: The Real Reason Leaders and Their Companies Win.

The research explores the relationships among character habits and principles, leadership
excellence, and organizational results. Organizations led by those of high moral character consistently perform better. Leadership character turns out to be a critical success factor and a competitive advantage.

The book goes on to describe how character is formed, how it creates value, and how that value spreads throughout the organization. It presents methods for building your own leadership character and creating a character-driven organization that achieves superior business results.

There was an article in the June 2013 Inc. Magazine that reminded me of an issue we leaders face daily. The author is Jason Fried, CEO of Basecamp¹, a web-based software company formerly known as 37signals. The issue is delegation.

Jason confesses that “our continued growth depends on me becoming a different kind of leader—one who is able to see when other people can do a better job than I can.” With all the demands on his attention, he could no longer give the necessary focus to shepherding a product. He handed off management of the company’s flagship product to a capable colleague.

Andy Stanley² advises leaders to “do only what only you can do.” (I believe the origin of this phrase is attributed to Dutch Professor Edsger Wybe Dijkstra, 1930–2002.) We should be aware of our strengths, focus our time and effort on those areas where we can contribute the greatest value, and delegate the rest. This is never easy. It requires honest self-assessment, knowledge of the strengths and potential of our people, crystal clarity about the expected outcomes, and timely accountability mechanisms.

Jason observes the win-win involved. By giving another the chance to develop his talents, he also receives a chance to grow and the time to devote his attention to new ideas. Let us each remember this the next time we are overwhelmed by the details of day-to-day operations.
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¹ See Basecamp’s popular collaboration app at http://basecamp.com. Also check out Jason’s books at http://www.amazon.com/Jason-Fried/e/B002MQ13PQ/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1.

² Andy Stanley is Senior Pastor of North Point Ministries in suburban Atlanta.