The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader | Character: Be a piece of the rock

The 21 qualities in the book are:

1.       Character: Be a piece of the rock

Bill Lear’s story of personally flying his Lear Jet to diagnose a technical problem on his Jets, which resulted in two previous crashes, was recounted.  The chapter ends with a recount of a girl replying her father that “I’m a lot bigger on the inside than on the outside” when he questioned if she could finish a huge cotton candy.  Maxwell cited this story as an example of real character “being bigger on the inside”.

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Webster’s definition

There were eight definitions of character, and I think the closest to Maxwell’s is:

moral excellence and firmness

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My Thoughts

Maxwell’s example Bill Lear certainly demonstrated moral excellence.  Instead of brushing of responsibility of his company and blaming the pilots for the crashes, Lear announced the grounding of his planes and risked his life to verify the problem before rectifying it.  Maxwell made a lot of sense in arguing for character as the first quality of a leader.  What was strange, though, was his linkage of character “being bigger on the inside” with a girl declaring that she could finish her huge ball of cotton candy.  I have no idea how this little anecdote brings a satisfactory conclusion to the brilliant start of this chapter.