The Big 4

I wonder what part does character and integrity play in leadership success?

We talked earlier about that performance and values chart that we use, and the Y, if you think about it, character, part of who we are, integrity, honesty, caring, they're all values that are part of what we believe makes us solid individual and a solid contributor to our organization. And for me, that is absolutely number one. Even if I didn't do a good job somewhere, which I don't think I had, people will always -- they will never say "Kevin didn't demonstrate high quality, character, integrity and honesty." I think those are so important to who we are as individuals. And when you see it going the other way, as we've seen in so many of our so-called leaders, it's disturbing to me, because I do believe that character, integrity, and honesty will go a long way to you being the kind of example you want kids to follow.

I think it's true. I think your reputation matters. And once it's been shot, it's really hard to bounce back from that. And not that you can't do it, but it's really, really hard.

And I will say that as a leader of this organization, of any organization, you want to be able to demonstrate those kind of values, ours are caring, honesty, respect, and responsibility. Those are the four character traits that we in the YMCA believe is so important to our ability to be leaders.