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Why Emphasize Personality Characteristics?
Why does the model for initiating Youth Leadership Values Training start with identifying and developing Four Key Personality Characteristics for Youth Leadership Development Emphasis? Why were they selected?
We found that the four traits of +Self-Esteem, +Self-Confidence, +Attitude of Expectations, and +Moral/Ethical Life's View are clearly the foundation personality characteristics that must be present to some significant degree, and in turn must be subjected to further development in a Values matrix, in order for Leadership values to grow and skills flourish.
Think of it this way; by emphasizing these four Personality Characteristics, they will become the growth medium in which the four Leadership Core Values take root and grow - if properly nurtured.
The balance of this overview will be devoted to an individual examination of each of these Four Key Personality Characteristics for Youth Leadership Development Emphasis. Our goal is to give the reader a solid understanding of the supporting role these Personality Characteristics play in leadership values development, and the need to nurture them in a Youth Leadership Values Training initiative.
Let's start by illustrating how you might think of these Personality Characteristics as fitting into a conceptual framework around which you can construct your own approach to Youth Leadership Values Training.
As we examine, one-by-one each of these four key personality characteristics in the side panel to the right (click on icons to review), we will do so against the background of the following postulate:
Although there are many Personality Characteristics that are important for emphasis in a Leadership Values Training Initiative;
- These four Personality Characteristics of +Self-Esteem, +Self-Confidence, +Attitude of Expectations, and +Moral/Ethical Life's View are crucial, and must be further developed as a foundation from which key Youth Leadership Values can grow and flourish.
Which is more important, a healthy Self-Esteem, an abundance of Self Confidence, an upbeat and positive "can do" Attitude of Expectations, or the ability to use key Values in order to "navigate" with our own internal Moral/Ethical Life's View? Logic and common sense tell us the answer is "all of the above". The answer is that each of these four personality characteristics are interrelated as pieces of the same overall leadership development puzzle, with one or the other playing a more dominant supporting role or even a Cameo performance as circumstances dictate.
Understanding the Conceptual Framework for the Four Personality Characteristics
Notice that there are four numbered Leadership Development Quadrants in the preceding graphic representation that correspond to the 4 Key Personality Characteristics for Youth Leadership Development Emphasis:
- Start with Leadership Development Quadrant Four (LDQ4) labeled +Self-Esteem, and described as “My Inner View – Self Concept”.
- Note the logical progression to LDQ3 as you move from a situation where the presence of +Self-Esteem is at a sufficient level for +Self-Confidence "My relationship with others - Belief in Self" to now begin to flourish.
- This leads to forming the foundation for an +Attitude of Expectations in LDQ2 to start to produce an upbeat outlook on life that leads to a greater sense of personal control, thereby fostering the belief that one is "worthy" and justified in thinking that he or she can indeed achieve their goals and ambitions.
- What remains in LDQ1 is to lay the Leadership Core Values track for these now robust personality traits to run on in the context of our own unique and internal +Moral/Ethical Life's View. Note that the main focus is on further developing and fine tuning the Leadership Core Values so that they become guiding principles. The ongoing goal is that all four of the Leadership Values that are a component of our internal Moral/Ethical Life View have also become interlocked and imbedded as a component of our Self-Esteem, Self-Confidence, and Attitude of Expectations - "outlook on life".
These four Personality Characteristics affect our will to act and therefore shape and determine how we behave (i.e. confidently, with pride, self-assured, with energy and enthusiasm, expectantly, ethically, courageously, resolutely, ambitiously, etc.). We can think of these behaviors as coming from what Rokeach, (1968) described as the behavioral dimension of our personality. According to Rokeach, feedback from the behavioral dimension of our personality shapes the following: our attitudes about ourselves, our self-image, our abilities, and our values and ethical perspective.
In turn, our environment, our thoughts, our emotions, and our actions are also influencing this behavioral personality component.
At this point, the Personality Characteristics for Youth Leadership Development emphasis have been described in detail and identified conceptually to reside in four Leadership Development Quadrants. As we will introduce here, the key Leadership Values of Integrity, Achievement, Responsibility, and Courage also fit into the various quadrants. This website, will explain how these four key Leadership Values interrelate in a synergistic and overlapping fashion with Personality Characteristics that are the focus of this page.
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