May 2009
Continuous Improvement
By Loren Paulsson
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These initiatives include improving Character First!'s consulting capacity, marketing the Character First! brand, and ensuring training and materials meet real needs. Numerous staff members volunteered to help with each project, and on May 6, staff, directors, and board members met to hear how each team has progressed.
My team had responsibility to develop Character First!'s "verbal brand"- encapsulating the vision, method, and some of the benefits of Character First!
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We hope this vision will clarify who we are at Character First! and challenge all of us to value integrity and build constructive relationships.
Character First! helps people see the value of good character...so they can build better workplaces and communities.
Character First! challenges leaders to model good character and helps leaders integrate character-based standards into job descriptions, reward structures, and management practices. Character First! training tools describe good character and talk about the attitudes a person needs in order to improve relationships and make ethical choices. The character vocabulary helps colleagues challenge and applaud one another for good character.
As people care about integrity and relationships, an organization will improve customer service, retain good people, strengthen teamwork, and build goodwill in the community. But the greatest benefits of a character emphasis come when a person forgives instead of sabotaging coworkers, takes responsibility instead of neglecting family members, or tells the truth instead of betraying a customer's trust.
The character we value today will determine who we become tomorrow.
Loren Paulsson writes feature articles in the monthly bulletin and contributes to on-going curriculum development.
Who to Honor
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Those in authority also deserve honor for the positions of responsibility they have. By honoring a supervisor, employees honor the whole structure of responsibility that allows people to cooperate and work together. Even when leaders are personally wrong, they still deserve respect for the positions they hold.
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Talk about honor—and many other qualities—with family members using Achieving True Success. Just $12.
The Power of the Tongue
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Your words can compliment, encourage, and challenge people, or they can slander, manipulate, and tear down. Words can resolve tension or fuel an argument.
A person who harbors anger, jealousy, or insecurity will naturally say words that are mean or cutting. On the other hand, someone who develops gratefulness, virtue, and honor will speak wholesome words.
As the proverb says, “From the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.”
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Difficult Children
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To bridge this gap, teachers must show genuine concern. This task requires learning about their lives and understanding what factors outside the classroom may contribute to the problem.
Parents and teachers should also deal individually with offenders instead of resorting to public humiliation. Teachers who honor their students—even while correcting them—can hope for much better results than those who denigrate, belittle, and disrespect those under their care.
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Honor Thoughts
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“Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of man you are.” —Thomas Carlyle
“Men are respectable only as they respect.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
“No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.” —Calvin Coolidge
