The Priority of Character In Leadership | Dr. Myles Munroe

thank you for joining us for another power-packed message from dr. Myles Munroe provided by Monroe global incorporated and Monroe global.com we transform followers into leaders and leaders into agents of change we hope that this message is a blessing to you as you advance your life and discover your purpose now let's go into the message the priority of character I want to ask you a question on the screen there's a photograph and I want to ask you a question about this photograph those who are watching this from home or listening to a CD on the screen in this room is a massive photograph of a bodybuilder his physique is incredible I think we are all jealous of him I'm talking about the man we would love to look like that this is a powerful photograph of human strength I'm gonna show you another man and I want to ask you a question here's another man now both of these are men the second photograph is another man who looks like he weighs about 110 pounds the previous photograph is a man who look like he weighs about 280 pounds the first man has biceps and triceps and his muscles are carved and chiseled the second man looks like he came from the Bahamas the question I have between these two men is a simple question which one of these men exhibits strength which one of these men are the most powerful is it man number one or is it man number two now before you answer you must study the man carefully this man that all the muscular physique on the surface he exhibits power strength even discipline but the second man doesn't look too impressive he seemed to be suffering from malnutrition probably is not a disability should it be and you look at these photographs physically and you have two responses to these men one of them impresses you the other one depresses you one of them make you a look at him and you're attracted to him the second one you wish you never meant now which one of these men are the most powerful I want to take you through a quick response of that question I want to take you through an exercise that I call character versus ability one of these men have power the other one doesn't seem to have power so here's the question I'm going to tell you who these two men are the first man his name is Sam it's a very powerful guy that first pitch you saw his name is Sam the second guy his name is Joe he's at my friends Sam and Joe I booked my friends let's talk about Sam and Joe we got two men Joseph and Samson we got a problem here Samson has strength of body and many leaders remind me of Samson they speak well they dress well they are articulate they resonate with charisma they look like they are powerful they wear power ties or she carries a power briefcase they walk around with their g4 telephones and their power notebooks they're impressive people strength of body but Joseph is different he has strength of character character you cannot see physically and visually which one of these men is stronger Samson impresses men when you look at Samson all of us are impressed but Joseph impressed God power impresses men character impresses God you decide who's your priority men Oh God whoever is your priority will determine your life Samson and Joseph are both men Joseph died in a position of power Samson lost his position and his vision and power I guess the bottom line is write this down character protects power and vision no matter how much power you have how much vision you claim to possess if you do not have character your power and your vision are at risk this is why character is more important than power it's more important than vision it's more important than skill it is even more important than influence because character is the source of influence so let's take a look at these two men he has a man who was strong in body but weak in Garrett he falls to the mercy of his sensual flesh desires Samson here's a man who shows strength of character he runs away from the lust and the sin she will passions that you battle with in this room every day one man he ends his life looking big but blind even though his last act was great we only remember his bald head I guess even coming back is tough this man Joseph shows that gerotor is stronger than power what did I say I want you to remember this as a leader never be impressed with people's power you want to study their character never trust a person with power only trust people with character never be impressed with people who have power seek for those who have the silent strength of character Joseph gets my vote so the conclusion of the matter is simple write it down the foundation of leadership is character this statement sounds very simple but it's not I didn't say that the roof of found of leadership is character I didn't say the windows and the walls of your life is character I said the foundation of your leadership his character so I want to remind you of what character is if you may you can record it character is a commitment to a set of values without compromise when Joseph was tested he had to decide whether he value lust and pleasure more than prison Joseph chose prison pleasure and prison both begin with P you got to decide which P is more important in your life which P is your priority pleasure or are you going to pursue the simple powerful essence of principle number two character is dedication to a set of standards without wavering Sampson didn't survive his standards collapsed under the weight of lust he lost the most important thing a human being can possess and that is a character that has moral force number three character is self-imposed discipline in keeping with moral convictions notice the term self-imposed nobody made Joseph run and nobody made Sampson stay it's always up to you you are the creator of your own character discipline is self imposition I am coming to the conclusion very slowly in my years of dealing with leadership issues that conviction is really the key to leadership its conviction I never thought I would come to such a simple conclusion because you can actually discover your purpose and still not be convicted enough to pursue it it is conviction that sends people to prison it is conviction that makes people run from pleasure it is conviction that creates character number four character is a constant effort constant effort to integrate your words your deeds and your actions I showed you in the evening session an illustrator of the two men who were one man and how the process is to bring those two man together until there's only one man you want to integrate your words when you say something you actually do it and you do it because you are it and number five character is the willingness to sacrifice your pleasure for the sake of principles so character is basically being one with yourself by the way I don't time to get into this but in my book on character I talk about the fact that God is God because he is character you know the the Hebraic concept of God when they describe God they concluded one word God is one now some of you have no idea what that means and if you speak to a Jewish call of scholar right now he he would tell you that that is the most important quality of God God is one he is integrated would you believe write this down the word holy actually means one holy means one we use terms like pure B Taney use terms like scientific but no it actually means one it means there's no dichotomy in the person it means that the person is so pure there's no ulterior elements you know the people who you know who have ulterior motive these are dangerous people a person with ulterior motives is a person without character so to be one means that you have arrived at a point of what we call holiness and don't tell me that it's not possible because someone said two thousand years ago be holy like your father in heaven is he will never come man what's not possible you should never be to people and most people are matter of fact your greatest battle is between you and your other self and the more your secret self can become public you become closer to character I want to talk about values because character is founded in values and this word philosophy is important the most powerful component of leadership is philosophy now this is important because I'm going to show you how philosophy is really the manifestation of your character philosophy is your belief system your belief system come from all the ideas that you collected over time that you've accepted as truth or in my perspective from this session acceptable all leaders manifest a philosophy through their belief system so I'm gonna give you a little list to write down believe creates your values your values produce your morals your morals inform your ethics your ethics produce your character and your character controls your life so please follow the system very carefully first was number one beliefs create your values if you believe that taking something that doesn't belong to you is not right you believe that then you follow the process if you believe that stealing we call it is not right then that becomes valuable to you it becomes a value to you that value then produce your moral response to the opportunity to steal and because your moral response is that this value is too important to you to violate then your behavior becomes what they call ethical behavior you've a fickle behavior it informs your ethics and because your ethics which people can see takes action then people say you are a person of character and if you do it consistently they say you are have a life of character so there's a process let's go through leadership keys I in my books on leadership I have isolated over fourteen necessary components of leadership but I isolated them down dilute them down to two three in this session three most important components of leadership the first one is purpose which is the source of your vision the second one is potential which is the source of your ability and skill and the third one is principles which are the key and the most important because they are the values that you hold dear and will not violate leadership therefore is purpose that you that's your mentality your vision the things you see and feel your ability potential is the second one that's your power to perform and to do but the third one is principles and this one has to do it being responsible Tiger Woods was a powerful awesome character in golf but his character had a break a defect the result was an irresponsible behavior he was not responsible he didn't act responsibly his character was destroyed he's trying to rebuild it again so I just want to go over these very quickly again three components of leadership I consider to be essential one is principles which produce character characters more important than charisma values are more important than vision and so don't ever believe that your vision is the most important thing in your life your vision is as safe as your values leadership is impossible without a guiding vision and a purpose it's impossible without a deep passion and conviction to accomplish your prep your purpose however it is also impossible that our principles that regulate leadership behavior I hope you will never again after this summit ever make anything in your life more important than character and that you will spend the rest of your life fighting to protect your character I'm talking about fighting I would prefer that you call me one day and say dr. miles I lost my house my car the dog is dead bank comes shut down but I still get my character I promise you I would find money for you and build you a house because I would prefer to have a friend with character than a rich friend with corruption vision and values very important relationship between the two first of all without values vision has no destiny and discipline this is very important to write down with vision without values is destiny without discipline no matter how great your destiny is it could be derailed by your lack of discipline Samson what a great story that could have ended neither he would have been one of the greatest judges of Israel but he is known as the man who fell for a woman disgraced his nation and corrupted his memory forever number two vision is protected by values number three vision is interpreted through your values no matter how great your vision is I can tell if you believe it by the way you are acting for example if you show me a massive vision that you have for your life and you're smoking while you're showing it to me I want to think about this now that means you got this vision this massive vision that'll probably take 50 years to accomplish phase 1 and you are working on your death in other words you don't value your lungs even though you have a big destiny so we got people with great vision sippin on alcohol while they're talking about it this is like it's like a smoking doctor your life is interpreted through your values I eat properly people ask me why do you so I've known you for 50 years you have energy every day that ain't no miracle I take a lot of vitamins every morning and I eat properly and exercise and don't stress myself out by having any adulterous relationships you know why you look oh you got a dojo in your life sin makes you old crap because the stress level that sin causes destroys the free radical cells in your body triggers them and turn them into cancer cells and you end up with death in your body just from an act your values interpret your your vision number four organizational vision is corporate purpose in pitches okay your company you business people here you've your company or you passes you of your church or your politicians you have your party or your platform anybody got some organizational component but let me tell you somewhere organization this is very important write this down organizational values are corporate convictions your organization must have character not just you and the problem is you are the organization I was speaking with government's the last three weeks in Africa and we went to so many countries and every country went to we spoke with government leaders they were in seminars just like this I was talking to them for hours and I was sharing with every government that I spoke to I said listen there's no such thing as corrupt politicians and sorry corrupt politics I said there's no such thing as a corrupt government doesn't exist organizations are never corrupt it's the people that get in there this is why when the Attorney General spoke on our first day she made a statement very important and I say it often she said in reference to politics that the politician determines what the country will look like their values that are personal become public policy this is why for example in the United States you Americans need to be very careful because you think that the president is your problem the president of the United States is never your problem because he's always temporary the most dangerous people in the United States are the people you cannot fire you can't vote them out because you didn't vote them in that's why they are called supreme so you don't understand don't miss my session third session today the most dangerous people in the United States and in every country are the ones who create law because law produces values they become the character of the country not the people the laws they make they create your children's future they tell your children what's acceptable and not acceptable that's why they are called supreme do you know the word supreme is only used in reference to God which means that America has God's so don't worry but if the president were to present too much I give you something the president breath presidents go and come it's the guys you can't move I'm not saying that your president shouldn't be checked but I think sometimes you put too much and is on the wrong thing you need to make sure the people you may even need to challenge your governmental system in the next 20 years and say something's wrong with this system we can't afford to have people sitting in a chair permanently there's got to be a way to remove them if they do not go live and sync with our traditional values as a country organizations have values write this down but vision and values is the marriage of purpose and principles your purpose for your life purpose for your organization you got to marry them with principles so they can be protected by the principles principles are those values and convictions and beliefs that you hold dear that's why we call them values you value them very important here's a guy that's all you don't know where this guy his finger it's President Clinton let me take what I discover about leaders write this down they confuse character with reputation never trust your reputation and don't trust other people's reputation we've made reputation more important than character and personal responsibility so therefore we make position more important than disposition and therefore our greatest need today is really not leaders with great reputation but leaders who are great responsible attitude they will not violate values I'm talking about personally reputation it's never more important than responsibility I heard the Attorney General speak yesterday morning I'm telling you she said some important thing she said that leaders today are more concerned about managing their image than they are about managing the people's business image management matter of fact they even hire image consultants now you know you are in trouble when you gotta hire people to give you an image because your character is so weak you need someone to be paid to give you one this is disastrous I'm an image consultant what do you mean by that that means something is wrong with the poisons image and you're gonna prop it up with false advertising and promotion you're going to create lies damage control they say damage control damage control Hey a secret came out about the president damage control so they hired ten people for damage control what that's like telling God oh you found out about me hang on a second I'm gonna get some people to kind of you know fix this for me god this character so serious image consultants and they have had one in my life what you see is what you get Myles Munroe my wife is my image consultant and she's also my bodyguard she's also my entourage I only charted my wife not ten men I tell people you invite me to come to your event two tickets why because she's a part of my message and she doesn't have to say a word I want her there why my character is more important than your money or you men in here who associate with me you remember that let your wife be your greatest witness and make sure your wife is a woman [Applause] now reputation is not the same as character write this down please character I'm just saying Martin you erased write this down please reputation is what others think about you character is would you know about you if you knew everything you know about you would you marry you is the question reputation is what you are in public character is what you are in private my private life is the force of my public performance living in a small country like this believe me is a tough thing because everybody know where you've been last night you just think they don't know no woman in this country can say I have a child for her lay with her no one in this country can ever say I touch your breasts or touch your hip no one I'd say publicly why because my life is my secret life it's called the moral force of leadership your words as heavy as your character write this down integrity means you are one with yourself you are the same in the day in the night you are the same in the office with the door closed or in the party when everybody's present you are the same in the pulpit as you are in the prayer room as you are counseling someone in the room you are the same person if there's any dichotomy your character is in danger never disconnect yourself from yourself Oh healthy father integrity is when your private life and your public life becomes one we need leaders in the next 10 years to emerge in our countries who are women and men of integrity my friends I want to talk quickly about the source of moral character and leadership the moral force of leadership is the key to inspirational leadership now I don't think anyone can question how much Nelson Mandela inspires you does he you don't even know him but his life his fixed disposition remember with Linda last night his his unmovable conviction transformed the whole world people who never knew him became totally inspired by him because moral force can inspire people from a distance philosophy and conviction is the source of morality we need leaders whose convictions are so deep it becomes the force of their life men and women of moral character don't need to speak much because the character is louder than their words I want to submit to you that your convictions really are leadership they form the basis of what you do as a leader and your belief systems and your convictions therefore produce your values your values produce your morals and your morals produce your discipline and your discipline manifest your epics and your ethics create your character you are schizophrenic if your belief and your lifestyle is a dichotomy character means one you are the same person all the time character is your characters what you do when no one's watching your characters what you do in secret your character is what you do and no one will ever find out what do you do again I mean what do you do that's the real you the other one is a fake ethical behavior is simply a manifestation of your true self mother Teresa what a woman strange woman powerful character she didn't speak loud when you have moral force of character you know to talk loud when I meant mr. Mandela a few times and and almost every time I met him he's very quiet but the whole room shook when he walked in his his character was so heavy his words had to be few if people ignore you when you walk into a room you better check your character I'm not talking about Fame I'm even talking about fear does your present great fear or as a moral force and these are humble people these not tyrants one of the nicest men I ever met is Nelson Mandela he laughs with me you know we chatted and I'm like this guy is bigger than life humble character is a tested person who became who remained consistent under pressure let me wrap this up with some thoughts here leadership needs to share its vision with people but I want to just caution us as leaders and we got so many here you know I think we up to over 50 countries now in this room and some of you are affecting millions of people let me let me take write this down please write this down leaders stand for something they stand for their vision but they all have must they also must stand on something and that's their values you know he said boy I stand for this cause yeah but I don't know what you standing on what will you not sacrifice what will you not compromise for you are never remembered for the things that you compromise for history forgets you you remember the things that you were willing to die for all true leaders true leaders adhere to a set of values that they won't compromise all true leaders not leaders but the true ones they don't sacrifice their values sometimes you got to abandon your best friends to protect your character something you got to give up some of your family members even to protect your character no one should be more important in your character nobody that's why Jesus said if you follow me you may have to become an enemy of your own family he says I would rather die broke with my character and they live in wealth with my corruption what a life I submit to you that values regulate your personal life but they also regulate your corporate performance and that's why we need to have our values intact this man is amazing 4 feet 9 inches high 80 pounds sitting in a James jail cell and he told the great empire of Great Britain you gotta let my people go that the moral force of power of conviction he said to them I will eat not a morsel of food until my people of India are free and he sat on the ground he said bring me a spindle I will make cloth and die isn't it tragic then you can live 80 years and when you die me forget you memories are created by character not compromise we will never forget this man he never ate Britain was defeated not by one bullet but by a man's character your character is more powerful than a weapon matter of fact it is your weapon I got some friends here with me in Uganda and about 12 days ago I was in Uganda somebody folks of Italy couple people here and they remember I walked into the presidential breakfast to speak I never meant the President of Uganda before the place had about maybe a thousand leaders all the government was there and I came in because my aircraft landed in late and he was already seated with his cabinet members and his wife and I walked into the Rope man and he was getting ready to speak and when I walked into the room the place erupted they forgot the president I was just innocent it was explode in the end taking me to my seat and everybody just forgot the president and the place exploded and the president was standing up there just wait who's this watching this handsome young guy come and say and then they took me to my seat you know and I could to see the president and they took me all on the way up and shot me at the head table right between him and his wife and he looked and when the people settle down he said well I guess I really don't know who this man is whoever years he's important wasn't me he said my wife talks about that more than she talks to me he said I got to get to know this man your character should be louder than your presence your absence should not take away your presence he is still present Martin Luther King jr. is still present a young man came to me in Kenya a few days ago he said I want you to meet my little boy a little kid four years old I said hey I picked the little boy hugged him he said ask him his name I said what's your name he said mild and the young man told me a story he said I was on drugs I was sleeping on the road and someone gave me a book in Kenya and it was your book and I sat on a cardboard box and read the book and decided I want to change my life and he said you don't understand I'm married I have my own company I got a beautiful family and I decided I'm gonna name my son after you because you changed my life and I want to hear your name every day in my house [Applause] that's why I have to live clean for the little boy's sake I got to protect his name my son out there who's running this organization I mean this whole event I named him miles I can't destroy his name who are you living for your character is personal but it's never private your public act depends on your private performance the weight of your public words as heavy as your private life the experience I have young guy came to me in Nigeria I was just there last week my friends were with me there and I came to me at the end of the conference session he says you know dr. Monroe I've been following you for 15 years and I've been really I read all your books and I drove three hours to come to this event and he says I just want to tell you that even though you are a good speaker and everything else what impressed me most is the way you treat your wife he was talking about a character issue he wasn't listening to me he was watching me that's why I take my wife everywhere I go cuz she is a part of my message my children go with me what they are part of my message if it doesn't work in my house how can I talk about your house your values here's a man we all know this guy I call it principles versus power values versus vision he had a great vision but his values were skewed he had a powerful power but his principles were corrupt and so he ran into historical tragedy leadership first of all should be a commitment the principles and values my jester vision secondly leadership at all values is power with all principles and character is manifested to show your value system over and above your vision people will listen to your vision but they'll watch your values that's not words and if your bodies are right there listen to your vision don't ever sacrifice your values on the altar of convenience characters accountability to self last night we heard Mr java.lang speak what a wonderful session that was that well he said some important things that's night didn't he I think he's coming back today listen he said something about auditing he says character itself audit you know good and your conscience is in charge of the audit every day accountability to self and then a collaborator people who you are influencing that's character I make my personal decisions on your behalf did you know that millions of people watch me every day billions of people watch our programs I mean I was shocked 1.6 billion people they say watch our programs around the world stations picked me up all over the place they just put me on free and I say to them I say them you think that's from that any fun that's pressure when people believe in you you are under pressure I do not live for myself anymore I live for you I live for a reputation of the Bahamas these people have come here why did you come here why did you come here because of the Prime Minister come on answer me no he got about that was between this room and and and who part of me are not meeting my character why should I come to you money can't bring people to you it's your character I submit to you that accountability is your obligation to report those who are is who you are responsible to and responsible for I am responsible for the people who look to me so public leadership has no private life learned that we keep trying to separate the two your public performance gets weight from your private life it's difficult to sell something you don't believe accountability commitment to your personal integrity I get tempted to do everything you get tempted to do but my response in that temptation is always my responsibility to the world I went to Robben Island I sat in the same cell mr. Mandela sat in my wife and I went there I wept in the cell because the cell was shorter than his height you ever been there it's an amazing place there's he's longer than the south which means that he had to actually sleep 27 years on a toll a cold concrete floor and the guy who took us on the tour said to us he was in the prison with mr. Mandela he's one of those who were released he's now touring the people because he knows the story and he said to me he said many times the government of the day came to him and asked him do you want to be released we will give you a house cars security we give you all the money you need give you a bank account just withdraw your opposition to apartheid and every time they came he would tell them close the cell door and knock it he said so many times they offered him and that's why everyone in prison followed him because they didn't offer them his character was so fixed he locked out his wife and children because he had a conviction for the people in other words is his private decision was a public cause he has character you can trust a man like that and so I cement I submit to you that character and integrity are the protection of leadership you protect your leadership by your character it is as safe as your character it is as fragile as your character in this new book that I just released and the publisher arrived today where's my publisher stand the police given one welcome to the publishing company that released our work so glad of you we get a car house publishing company in this book I missed it some people as examples of character failure the list was so long I had to take some of them off and these are people that you all know so we have a problem in the 21st century we have issues and the number one issue is character defects and we have to restore character as the most important priority in leadership and this is my hope that this week when you leave here that you will leave here with an awareness that your power is never more important than your principles and that your values is never more important than your vision and your character is much more important than your convenience and your comfort people believe you because of what they know about you thank you once again for listening to this message as we hope that it has been a blessing to you our goal is to show you new paths and opportunities so that you can discover your purpose it is your love support and partnership that makes Monroe global possible please visit us online at

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Views: 294,940

Keywords: myles munroe, dr myles munroe, munroe, munroe global, motivational, inspirational, motivation, inspiration, kingdom, leadership, purpose, character, speaker, author, consultant, bahamas, nassau bahamas, the bahamas, food for thought, educational, learning, self help, personal development, album, speakers, teach me, planning and change, crisis, Azusa, conference, global, teaching, ruth munroe, charisa munroe, mylesjr, myles munroe jr, next generation, the legacy of purpose, legacy, tv show

Id: IG4j7708hPA

Length: 58min 5sec (3485 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 28 2018