Leader’s Virtues

14 virtues to practice

1. 1
   Humility — Invite correction before a mistaken direction becomes costly for everyone else.
2. 2
   Courage — Make an unpopular ethical decision without hiding behind the group.
3. 3
   Fairness — Hear a quiet contributor as seriously as a persuasive favorite.
4. 4
   Candor — Explain a difficult decision without concealing its inconvenient tradeoffs.
5. 5
   Prudence — Match the reach of a proposal to the risks others would have to bear.
6. 6
   Integrity — Follow the standard you invoke when evaluating someone else's conduct.
7. 7
   Patience — Give a developing colleague room to learn without abandoning clear expectations.
8. 8
   Compassion — Notice the person behind an apparent failure of performance.
9. 9
   Gratitude — Credit the quiet contribution that made a visible success possible.
10. 10
    Equanimity — Receive bad news without making the messenger absorb your agitation.
11. 11
    Self-Command — Resist using authority to end a disagreement that threatens your pride.
12. 12
    Open-Mindedness — Give a proposal you did not originate a fair hearing before defending the current direction.
13. 13
    Contrition — Name the harm caused by your decision without making an apology into a defense of your intentions.
14. 14
    Justice — Consider what is owed to those affected by your decisions beyond what they have the power to request.

A rhythm for practice

Follow the fourteen virtues in order, allowing one week for each. One cycle takes fourteen weeks; four cycles take fifty-six weeks. Choose a bounded practice suited to your actual responsibilities and return to what happened before moving on.

What thoughtful leadership makes possible

You are asked to coordinate a small exhibition. Your first sketch places the organizer at the center, connected by an arrow to every task. A colleague asks where a finished label goes when you are out collecting the display stands. You add a direct handover between two teammates and agree which decisions each can make. Your name occupies less of the page. The exhibition has acquired a way to continue while you are in a van.

Leadership can help people accomplish something they could not readily arrange alone. A clear direction, an intelligible allocation of work and a decision made in time can be real contributions. Their value depends on how they serve the undertaking and the people taking part.

A deadline offered to impress a boss may consume someone else’s weekends. A report with one name on its cover may carry the work of many people. Thoughtful leadership makes these contributions and costs part of the decision while there is still time to change it. Ambition can serve a shared purpose when recognition follows work the group can responsibly undertake.

Humility and Open-Mindedness make direction correctable. Candor, Integrity and Courage make decisions answerable to reasons. Patience and Compassion help people contribute without reducing them to output. Gratitude recognizes what the result owes to others; Justice keeps affected people’s claims within the account.

Ways to take part

Responsibility for colleagues

Set credible commitments, support developing ability and describe contributions accurately where recognition matters.

A team you coordinate

Make a decision clear enough to act on and open enough to correct.

Influence without a title

Your proposal, expertise or example may shape a group’s choice even when you have no formal authority.

A person affected by the work

Consider the people who bear its noise, delay, cost or cleanup as well as those who join it.

Choices that need judgment

Direction and correction

A group needs a direction; the person offering it still needs information from others.

Achievement and credit

A visible leader can explain a result without absorbing every contribution into a personal success story.

Decision and consequence

Your power to choose does not make the costs fall only on you.

Choose a starting point

These situations illustrate dispositions, not professional management, employment or legal procedures. Practice within the decisions you are entitled to make and respect privacy, consent and other people’s ability to decline.

These pages offer ideas for reflection and character practice, not professional advice. Choose practices suited to your circumstances and abilities. You may adapt, pause, or skip an exercise; putting yourself or someone else at risk is not proof of virtue.

Reading and sources

Continue your practice

The named program follows this fourteen-virtue sequence. My Virtues lets you create a personal collection from eligible virtues. An optional practice program is available.

Join Leader’s Virtues Create My Virtues