The Character Gym: 3 Steps to Building a Resilient and High-Performance Culture

• Introduction: The Dangerous Illusion of Self-Awareness
• The “Inside-Out” Approach: Change Starts with Individuals
• Step 1: Strategically Cultivate Awareness
• Step 2: Strategically Invest in Character Development
• Step 3: Strategically Embed Character into Organizational Systems
• Conclusion

Introduction: The Dangerous Illusion of Self-Awareness

Why do so many corporate culture initiatives fail, despite leaders’ best intentions? The answer might surprise you. Research referenced in the Harvard Business Review shows that while 85% of people believe they are self-aware, only 10-15% actually are. This gap between how we see ourselves and how others perceive our behavior is the blind spot where cultural transformations fail.

In their research for the Leader to Leader journal, Mary Crossan and her colleagues from the Ivey Business School offer a solution. They argue that character is not a fixed trait but a set of habits that can and must be developed. Like a muscle, character can be trained. This requires a systematic approach, which they call the “character gym.”

The “Inside-Out” Approach: Change Starts with Individuals

The authors emphasize that sustainable cultural change must come from the “inside out.” It’s useless to impose values from the top down if the behaviors of individual employees and leaders don’t align with them. As former IMF Director Christine Lagarde noted, “change in culture must come from within.” An organization’s culture is the sum of the habits of all its members. Therefore, to change the culture, you must first change the habits.

Here is a 3-step plan to systematically approach this task.

Step 1: Strategically Cultivate Awareness

The first step is to move from general conversations about values to a common and precise understanding of what character is and how it functions. Using the 11-dimension diagnostic model (featured in our previous article), the team learns to recognize not only their strengths but also their imbalances—both individually and as an organization.

The goal of this stage is to learn to see how the same trait, such as Drive, can manifest as a virtue (high productivity) or a vice (tunnel vision, burnout). This creates a shared language and a foundation for further work. It is impossible to solve a problem without first being aware of it.

Step 2: Strategically Invest in Character Development

This is the core of the “character gym” concept. After identifying their blind spots, every employee—and especially every leader—must begin to intentionally work on them. Character is revealed through behavior, and behavior is the result of habits that can be formed through daily practice.

The study’s authors suggest concrete approaches, such as short, daily exercises. For instance, to develop Collaboration, one might practice having “yes, and…” conversations instead of “yes, but…”

However, a reinforcement system is crucial for habit formation. How can this practice become part of the workflow, not just an exercise? This is where modern digital tools play a key role. A platform like AlbiCoins, for example, allows you to create that very reinforcement system. When an employee demonstrates a desired quality (like Courage, by offering constructive criticism) and receives instant recognition and rewards from their peers, the new behavioral pattern is reinforced. This closes the “exercise-positive feedback” loop, significantly accelerating the development process.

Step 3: Strategically Embed Character into Organizational Systems

Individual efforts are not enough if the system works against you. For changes to be sustainable, character must be embedded into the company’s DNA.

The researchers offer a simple but powerful principle: “Wherever competence resides, character belongs.”

This means you must re-evaluate key HR processes:

• Hiring and Promotion: Assess candidates not only on their professional skills but also on the dimensions of character.
• Performance Management: Include behavioral indicators based on the 11 dimensions in your evaluation systems.
• Reward Systems: Ensure that you are rewarding not only the result but also how that result was achieved.

If your systems reward individual “Drive” at the expense of “Collaboration,” you will never build a team-oriented culture, no matter how much you talk about it.

Conclusion

Changing a culture is difficult because changing habits is difficult. There are no shortcuts or magic solutions. The “character gym” is not a one-time workshop but a continuous, conscious effort from every member of the team. But, as the researchers argue, this is the only path to creating a truly sustainable culture—one that will finally allow you to fully realize the potential of your strategy.

References:

1. Developing Leader Character: A Practical, Evidence-Based Approach
2. Self-Awareness Can Be Developed with Practice
3. The Role of Leadership in Organizational Change: A Review of the Literature
4. On the importance of character strengths for leadership: A multi-study examination of the role of integrity, bravery, and perspective
5. Organizational virtuousness and performance: a study of Finnish hospitals