The reputation you grow, and others see comes from the character you develop within you. Your reputation is what people think, your character is reality.

Character is what makes a person and is one of the most important attributes of a highly effective leader. How you behave, think and feel is what it means when people talk about your personality.

1. Your Character

Your character is a huge part of your personality and is why you are the individual you are. This is what people see from you every time they see you.

Your character is why you are associated with certain people and groups. Your character is why these people and groups are associated with you.

This is the same when you’re either in the workplace and in your personal life. You must remember that you cannot fake your character because you won’t get to where you want to go.

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Have you ever noticed that when you see new people arrive in one of your teams, they start with a good attitude? But, then as time passes, their attitude changes.

The reason for this is because their real character starts to show and others who are like them are attracted to them, and they start to associate with them. It is then the influence of these people that either bring out the best or the worst in them.

2. Your Influence

Who you are is very important, and it is your character that will enable you to move forward and head upward in the right direction. It is your character that will either keep you stagnant in your current position or enable you to start moving backwards.

I have seen people who I have worked with in the past who were hired because of what they know, but they were later fired because of who they are.

When I was younger, I didn’t know anything about developing my character and how important it is to all of us. I didn’t know where I was going, and I didn’t know which I direction I wanted to head in.

I was either stuck in the same position all the time, or I was drifting around without seeing anything better for myself. I was even blaming others for things that were not happening for me.

What I am sharing with you now took me another 10 years at least to understand, you can start to understand and work on yourself right now.

If you want to go from being an average person to a highly effective and exceptional leader, then what you will learn is that character is what it takes. When you know how to develop your character and become your best there will be nothing average about you anymore.

3. Who You Are

Your character is all about who you are, it is not about what or who you know. You will be able to see right through someone who has a fake character, and others will be able to see right through you too if you do the same. It doesn’t matter where you are in your life, you cannot fake your character.

You can only be true to yourself and true to others with your character. Will people feel that you care for them? Will people feel that you support and value them? Will people feel that they can put their trust in you? The level of influence you have with people will only come from how you make them feel.

People will only care how much you know, when they know how much you care for them. When they know this, the relationships you have with them will become stronger and will grow over time. This is how you can start to build relationships with new people too, it is all about your character.

What people see and feel from you is what comes from you on the inside.

To make ethical and moral decisions in your life, you must behave, think, feel, and act in the same way. This is how I develop my character and how I help others to do the same. I do my best to be my best every day.

The normal average person will do one thing, say something else, feel different and think another thing. This is why they are average and don’t know how to develop their character so that it matches what others see.

A highly effective leader does, says, feels and thinks the same and this is why their character matches what people see from them on the outside.

A highly effective leader talks the talk and more importantly walks the walk. What a highly effective leader says, how they behave, and how they act is the same. This is what it means to know who you are and work on yourself every day.

You must work on yourself to align what you say, the actions you take and what you believe in with the principles you are learning from this book. By doing this you are modelling what a highly effective leader does, how they think and what they believe in too.

The level of trust you will be able to build with others in your life will only build as you take your personal growth and development journey seriously.

If you talk your talk and walk your walk, will your influence increase or decrease? If you don’t talk your talk and walk your walk, will your influence increase or decrease? If you live how, you say you will live and say what you say will say, will you build trust or create distrust?

Thinking about what you will do is important. Saying what you will do is more important. Taking action on what you think and say you will do is most important.

When you confirm to people what you are thinking, this has now become a promise to them, and you have made the commitment to take action. But if you don’t take right action then what will happen?

4. Building Trust

Are you talking the talk and walking the walk? Are you building trust with people are you creating distrust with them?

What talk do you talk, and walk do you walk right now? How do you increase your influence with people, and what impact do you have on them right now? How much do you care for what you say? How much do you care for who you are? How much do you keep your commitments with people?

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People from all over the world have the same abilities and skills, but they don’t seem to achieve the same results all the time. Some of these people will have great options to take in their lives. Some of these people will have no options at all.

Some of these people will earn a lot of money throughout their lives and become rich. Some of these people will have no money and will more than likely become homeless.

The only reason that people with the same abilities and skills have such different results is because of who they are and the character they have.

The people who know you have their own thoughts and opinions about you, what your personality is like, and how you behave. Your character is personal, but it is not private and that is why what people see on the outside is who you are on the inside.

How people think and talk about us is where our reputation grows from. It does not come from how we think and talk about ourselves.

I welcome hearing how this post has influenced the way you think, the way you lead, or the results you have achieved because of what you’ve learned in it. Please feel free to share your thoughts with me by commenting below.

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All the best,

Tom (Lead, Grow, Influence)