News Intelligence Analysis
[Yurica Report Editor's Note: This article is offered to show how the cult of character is sold to the public.]
Friday, January 27, 2006 — Time: 12:34:43 AM EST
From the
Advertiser-Tribune
State Official Talks to Fostoria
Chamber About Character
By Jefferson Wolfe, jwolfe@advertiser-tribune.com
FOSTORIA - "What does character look like in Fostoria?"
The was the question Monty Lobb, the Ohio assistant secretary
of state, asked the city's business leaders Thursday night.
He was the featured speaker at the Fostoria Area Chamber of Commerce's
annual dinner, which took place at the Parish Life Center at
St. Wendelin Church.
Lobb spoke about a program to develop character put into effect by Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell after he took office.
It is called "Uncommon Sense" and features 20 principles of character Blackwell wanted to build in his staff and employees.
In society, there are scandals in business, athletics, the news media, churches and government. The common thread in all the scandals is low character, Lobb said.
Uncommon Sense was a method to set the standard for character and set the organizations' trajectory, he said.
When Blackwell took office, Lobb was the general counsel, and the office had a number of complaints, lawsuits and grievances against it. Even the physical office location was in a state of disrepair, Lobb said.
"It made a Greyhound Bus terminal look very attractive," he said.
They incorporated the program into staff meetings. Although it took a few weeks for employees to start to feel safe discussing issues, they started to share and talk about the culture in the office.
But building character takes time and is difficult, Lobb said.
"Character-building hurts," he said. "It's a marathon, not a sprint."
In some cases, the leaders in the office had to take an approach Lobb called "care-frontational." He said it took him a while to realize he could not make everyone happy, but he learned most people were with him when he was doing the right thing.
The goal was to try to create an environment in which people enjoy working.
"We try to do right by people," Lobb said.
Character is the cornerstone of good leadership, he said.
When people of character collaborate to solve problems, they can create a sense of community, Lobb said.
He compared community-building to cleaning fish. No one likes to do it, he said.
Competent leaders have to demand character first in themselves and then in others, he added.
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