Six things we have learned about building character

1. Character is more than a value system.
The difference between "virtues" and "values" has largely been lost in our society today. Virtues are moral absolutes - standards of behavior that should be fixed and universally understood and accepted. Virtues are things like honesty, responsibility and diligence. There should be no argument or debate about virtues. Virtues are important in any society or culture. Values, on the other hand, are shared beliefs and preferences. They can be good or bad. Even street gangs have "values." Some companies value confrontation, even if it hurts the feelings or self-respect of others. Some companies value winning at any cost. The key to building character in a business organization is to create a value system based on virtues. That's what we have tried to do at EDG Inc. Since 1996, EDG has sponsored a formal character building program to help employees understand, support and encourage character building traits in themselves and their co-workers. Here are some things we've learned about succeeding in this critically important endeavor.

2. Character building starts at the top
Building character is not something that can be delegated. It starts at the top and must touch every person in the company equally. All employees have to accept character building as being important. It is the responsibility of every employee to learn what character is, and help develop ways to improve it. EDG was one of the first corporate customers to sign up for a program called Character First! developed by the Character Training Institute in Oklahoma City. We have participated continuously in that program for more than ten years now. There are other character building programs available to businesses and organizations, but we have stayed with Character First! because it works for us. It's more than just staying with a program, though. The top managers of our company have committed their time, energy and resources to making Character First! Ubiquitous throughout the company. They talk about it in group meetings. They write about it in communications to other employees. They participate in training sessions. And they encourage new employees to find out about it. Building character is a never ending journey with a very fragile passenger. If you become distracted, you can full from the path quickly. In order to achieve success, managers have to make sure the focus on character building is nonstop and highly visible.

3. Character building takes time
You shouldn't expect overnight results with a character building program. It's not something you can pick up in a 2-day seminar. Changing behaviors is a slow process, one that requires constant reinforcement and practice. We decided to take the 49 character qualities from the Character First! program (see Figure 1) and deal with them one at a time in monthly meetings at each of our offices. It takes FOUR YEARS to work your way through the entire list. It's not that we wait four years to reveal the whole program to employees - there are introductory videos and pocket cards outlining the program's overall scope and the 49 character qualities. But by stretching it out over an extended period and treating each virtue individually; we demonstrate that ALL character qualities are important. And we emphasize the on-going nature of our commitment.

4. Reward Character building behavior
The most effective way to change organizational behavior is to recognize and celebrate the kind of behavior you want. Loudly and frequently. In fact, we believe one of the most important keys to employee development and satisfaction is provided through public praise. 49 character qualities. But by stretching it out over an extended period and treating each virtue individually; we demonstrate that ALL character qualities are important. And we emphasize the on-going nature of our commitment. Additionally, each EDG employee is recognized annually on his or her anniversary date for demonstration of a particular character trait. The employee's supervisor makes this observation at a monthly meeting of all employees in that office. At each of our monthly Character First! meetings, we present an award to someone who has exhibited the character quality that will be examined that month. If the attribute is “creativity”, we select someone from each of our five offices who is creative, and we spotlight that virtue. When employees receive their annual performance appraisals, they get feedback on which of the 49 character qualities are strengths for them, and which might need some extra developmental effort. Because there are so many qualities in the Character First! program, we do not score each one individually, but confine our discussion to strengths and weaknesses..

5. Hire for character, train for skills
When drafting athletes for sports teams, the question frequently arises, "Should we take the best people for positions that are weak, or should we draft the best overall athletes and train them to excel at one or more positions?" That's an easy one for us when you consider our emphasis on character. EDG is primarily concerned with recruiting and hiring persons of high moral strength and character. We feel those people will learn the required engineering and management skills faster, and will ultimately deliver better service to our customers over the long run. Of course, we search for individuals with the appropriate education, experience and training, but character is always the tie-breaker..

6. Character building is not a benevolent exercise
There's nothing wrong with doing good for good's sake, but we can trace many tangible benefits to our character building program. Job satisfaction, as reported through periodic employee surveys, went up immediately when we started the program and has continued to rise. Employees say that Character First! Is the single best thing about working at EDG. and management skills faster, and will ultimately deliver better service to our customers over the long run. Beyond job satisfaction, however, there are many other benefits that have been observed. Turnover rates are down. Absenteeism has decreased since starting the character building program. Recruitment costs are minimized, because candidates are profoundly influenced by talking to current employees. And Worker Compensation costs have dropped, even though our employee count has risen. When employees of our New Orleans (Metarie) office were hard-hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, there was no doubt in their minds that EDG would stand behind them. Not only did the company help with relocation and temporary living expenses, but other employees quickly came forward with donated clothing and household goods. Some even opened their homes to displaced employees.

A guide for decision making
More than anything else, character building provides a moral compass that guides decision making at every level. Character-based decisions cannot be second guessed. If your actions are dictated by a value system supported by universally accepted virtues, there can be no argument or debate. Doing the right thing is always right, no matter what. As many EDG employees like to say, "It's even right when no one is watching." And that's the best assurance of all.