When I was working in the Mines in Kogi State, we had a very bright and intelligent staff. He is always like he knows it all and there was nothing you asked him in his field he wouldn’t be able to answer, but unfortunately, he had a gangster approach toward his work style.
He had poor corporate culture and no corporate character. Fast-forward to my current place of work, I have this staff with a personal drive to achieve success in whatsoever tasks he is given within the timeline provided. Unfortunately, he would talk to his Line Manager rudely if things weren’t going as he expected. He would display all forms of arrogance to make his position known. Most interestingly, when he is corrected, what is more important to him is being heard than taking the correction.
Obviously, this is not the way to go. Character remains a very important and strong tool in ensuring success in the corporate world. With a strong character comes respect for constituted authority, and thus follows loyalty. No matter how competent or capable you are on your job, poor character will simply lead to a disconnect between one with team members. It will further bring somewhat abhorrence even before one’s boss. Poor character is displayed in many ways.
Some of such ways are: failure to take correction, displaying rude and arrogant behaviour, disregard for superior officers or constituted authority, mixing personal issues with professional matters, and displaying other behaviours that doesn’t conform with general societal norms repeatedly in the professional environment.
I have heard of managers and supervisors say they rather have one with a good character but incompetent than one who is competent but with a bad character. I actually share the same bias with people who say this. During interviews, I’m coordinating or conducting, my assumption is that the person is competent and capable which is why he or she made it to the interview session in the first place. Secondly, I also believe it’s the work of the HOD of the candidate to choose candidates for job based on competence and capability, but character which happens to be more powerful lies outside the hands of the Head of Department. In fact, in some climes, I have seen after successful interviews, the second or the third best is picked for the job over the candidate who scored first on competence and capability on the basis of issues related to character.
The importance of having a positive character over competence and capability can not be over emphasized. One of the reasons for this is because people will naturally be attracted to one with a respectful, loyal and positive character over one considered as a radical. This is important because the greatest currency in the corporate world is the “People Currency”. This implies that there is a limit to where your capabilities can carry you and where it stops, you will need people to carry you overboard. For instance, when talking about one’s promotion, the beneficiary isn’t usually in the room. Both line manager and even other senior staff outside the beneficiary of the promotion participate in the conversation. Most times, the conversation is not about whether the worker is capable or competent, but whether the staff has a good character (loyal and respectful).
Last week, I partook in a conversation in a WhatsApp Group about a particular employee who doesn’t greet people either superiors or elders at work. Some were of the opinion that greeting at the workplace isn’t by force, others said greetings don’t mean friendship while another asked how not greeting people, affects productivity.
Well, greeting does not directly affect productivity, but I can tell you that it constitutes a very important part of organizational culture. It speaks to the behavior of the person in question. It is therefore not likely that co-employees will find it comfortable working with such an employee. Indirectly, productivity will be affected.
In summary, we can’t talk about corporate behavior and corporate growth in a workspace without these three C’s – Competence, Capability, and Character.
As important as the first two C’s are, the last seems to be more important as it creates influence. It has a subtle way one can use in achieving their goals with little or no effort. The “Character” virtue is a value to access “People’s Currency” if properly used.
By
Dr. Ikenna M. Okafor,
(OgaHR)
Human Resource Professional and Management Consultant
