The Character Multiplier: How Authentic Leaders Create More Leaders
By Derek Neighbors on July 1, 2025
I watched it happen in a technology company that most people would never notice.
The VP of Engineering didn’t have the biggest team or the flashiest projects. But something remarkable kept occurring around her: junior developers became senior engineers faster than anywhere else in the company. Senior engineers became technical leads. Technical leads became engineering managers. And those engineering managers? They went on to other companies and built exceptional engineering cultures of their own.
She wasn’t just developing skills. She wasn’t just creating followers. She was creating something infinitely more valuable: character that multiplied itself through others.
Most leaders create followers. Great leaders create leaders. But the rarest leaders create character, and character creates everything else.
After studying leaders across industries who consistently develop other leaders, I’ve discovered they all share a specific approach to human development. They understand that leadership development isn’t about teaching systems or frameworks; it’s about character formation through lived example.
This is the Character Multiplier principle: authentic leaders systematically develop character in others, creating sustainable competitive advantage through human flourishing rather than human management.
The Character Development Reality
Here’s what the leadership development industry gets wrong: most “leadership development” creates dependency, not capability.
You see it everywhere. Companies invest millions in leadership training programs that teach skills, models, and frameworks. People attend workshops, complete assessments, practice techniques, and demonstrate competencies. But when they return to their real work environment, very little changes sustainably.
The problem isn’t the quality of the training. The problem is the assumption that leadership is primarily about acquiring knowledge and skills rather than developing character and wisdom.
Real leadership development happens through character formation in relationship with other leaders who embody what they’re trying to develop.
I learned this lesson the hard way early in my career. I was promoted to lead a team of software engineers and immediately enrolled in every leadership course available. I studied emotional intelligence, learned communication frameworks, practiced conflict resolution techniques, and could recite the latest management theories.
But when faced with real leadership challenges: difficult personnel decisions, competing stakeholder demands, technical crises under pressure, all those frameworks felt hollow. What I needed wasn’t more knowledge; I needed character formation through relationship with leaders who had already developed the qualities I was trying to build.
The difference between skill development and character development is the difference between learning about leadership and becoming a leader.
This is why the ancient Greeks focused on paideia, character formation through education and example. They understood that true development happens through relationship with those who embody the virtues you’re trying to cultivate.
The Multiplication vs. Management Distinction
Most leaders think their job is to manage performance. Character multipliers understand their job is to develop people.
Management focuses on behavior modification. Character multiplication focuses on identity transformation.
When you manage performance, you create systems to monitor, measure, and modify what people do. When you multiply character, you create environments where people become the kind of person who naturally does excellent work.
The difference is profound:
Performance Management Approach:
- Focus on behaviors and outcomes
- Use external motivation and consequences
- Monitor compliance with standards
- Create accountability through oversight
- Develop skills and competencies
Character Multiplication Approach:
- Focus on identity and values formation
- Cultivate intrinsic motivation and purpose
- Model excellence through example
- Create accountability through relationship
- Develop wisdom and judgment
I saw this distinction clearly in two engineering leaders at the same company. Both had similar technical backgrounds and team sizes. Both achieved reasonable business results.
The first leader focused on performance management. He had detailed processes, clear metrics, regular check-ins, and sophisticated tracking systems. His team delivered what was asked, when it was asked, at the quality level specified. But when he left the company, his systems fell apart and his team struggled to maintain previous performance levels.
The second leader focused on character multiplication. She invested time in understanding each person’s aspirations, connected their work to larger purposes, shared her own learning journey, and created opportunities for people to develop judgment through real challenges. Her team consistently exceeded expectations and innovated beyond requirements. When she left, her team continued to excel because they had internalized the character qualities that drove performance.
The first leader created capable followers. The second leader created capable leaders.
The Character Multiplication Model
After studying character multipliers across industries, from military leaders who develop other officers to business leaders who consistently promote from within to coaches who produce other successful coaches, I’ve identified four essential elements that create character-based leadership development.
I call it the Character Multiplication Model: Authenticity Foundation, Consistency Commitment, Development Focus, and Empowerment Philosophy.
These aren’t independent techniques; they’re interconnected dimensions of how authentic leaders systematically develop character in others. Master these four elements, and you’ll create leaders who create other leaders. Miss any one, and you’ll create followers who depend on your presence for direction.
Let me walk you through each element and show you how to implement them in your own leadership development approach.
Authenticity Foundation: You Can’t Give What You Don’t Have
The first principle of character multiplication is that you cannot develop in others what you have not developed in yourself.
This isn’t about perfection; it’s about genuine commitment to your own character development. People can sense authenticity immediately, and they can sense when someone is trying to teach what they haven’t truly learned.
Character multipliers understand that their own character development is not separate from their leadership development; it is their leadership development.
I learned this lesson during a particularly challenging period when I was leading a rapidly growing engineering team. We were facing technical debt, cultural friction, and performance pressure. My instinct was to focus on solving everyone else’s problems while ignoring my own development needs.
But I noticed that the more I tried to fix others, the less effective I became. People could sense that I was operating from knowledge rather than wisdom, from techniques rather than genuine understanding.
The breakthrough came when I started being honest about my own learning journey. Instead of trying to project expertise I didn’t have, I began sharing the questions I was wrestling with, the mistakes I was making, and the principles I was trying to live by.
Paradoxically, becoming more vulnerable about my own development process made people more open to their own development.
Authenticity Foundation Elements:
Personal Development Investment: Character multipliers are committed to their own ongoing character development. They read, reflect, seek feedback, and work with mentors or coaches not because they’re broken, but because they’re growing.
Transparent Learning: They share their own learning journey with others. Not to appear vulnerable, but to normalize the development process and model intellectual humility.
Value Alignment: Their actions consistently align with the values they espouse. They don’t just talk about integrity, courage, or excellence; they demonstrate these qualities through daily choices, especially under pressure.
Mistake Ownership: When they make errors in judgment or character, they own them quickly and use them as teaching moments rather than trying to hide or rationalize them.
The authenticity foundation isn’t about being perfect; it’s about being real about the pursuit of excellence. Character multipliers understand that people follow authentic character development more readily than polished performance.
Consistency Commitment: Character Through Patterns
Character is revealed through patterns, not moments. Character multipliers understand that development happens through consistent demonstration of values over time.
Most people think about character as grand gestures in crisis moments, the dramatic stand for principle, the heroic sacrifice for the team, the inspiring speech that rallies everyone to excellence. But character multipliers know that real character development happens through thousands of small choices that demonstrate values when no one is watching.
This is why consistency is the second element of character multiplication. People develop character by observing patterns of behavior, not isolated incidents.
Consistency Commitment Elements:
Daily Value Demonstration: Character multipliers consistently demonstrate their values through daily interactions, decisions, and responses. How they handle interruptions, treat support staff, respond to setbacks, and prioritize their time all communicate their actual values.
Pressure Testing: Their character remains consistent under pressure. When deadlines loom, budgets tighten, or conflicts arise, they don’t abandon their principles for convenience.
Cross-Context Integrity: They maintain the same character standards across different contexts, with superiors, peers, subordinates, customers, and family. Their character isn’t situational.
Long-term Thinking: They make decisions based on long-term character development rather than short-term advantage, both for themselves and others.
I worked with a CEO who understood this principle deeply. She had a simple practice: every decision was evaluated not just on business outcomes, but on character development outcomes. “What kind of organization are we becoming through this decision?” was always part of the conversation.
This wasn’t naive idealism; it was strategic character development. She understood that the cumulative effect of character-based decisions creates organizational character that attracts and develops character-driven people.
When faced with a opportunity to win a large contract by misrepresenting their capabilities, she declined not because she couldn’t deliver, but because starting a relationship with deception would model the wrong character pattern for her team.
The result? Her organization became known for integrity in an industry notorious for overpromising. This reputation attracted both better clients and better team members who valued character development over short-term gains.
Development Focus: Seeing Potential Before Others See It
The third element of character multiplication is the ability to see and develop potential in people before they can see it in themselves.
Character multipliers don’t just manage current performance; they invest in future capability. They see people not just as they are, but as they could become with proper development. More importantly, they create environments where people can discover and develop capabilities they didn’t know they had.
Development Focus Elements:
Potential Recognition: Character multipliers have developed the ability to see character potential in people that others might overlook. They look beyond current skill levels to underlying character qualities that predict future success.
Stretch Opportunities: They consistently give people opportunities that are slightly beyond their current proven capabilities, providing support while allowing space for growth and occasional failure.
Individual Investment: They invest time in understanding each person’s unique development needs, aspirations, and growth trajectory rather than applying one-size-fits-all approaches.
Thinking Development: Rather than just giving answers, they ask questions that develop thinking capability. They’re more interested in helping people learn to make good decisions than in making decisions for them.
One of the most powerful examples I’ve witnessed was a department director who saw leadership potential in a quiet analyst who never spoke up in meetings. Instead of trying to change her personality, she began giving her smaller opportunities to lead analysis projects, then gradually increased responsibility while providing coaching and support.
The breakthrough came when the director asked her to present findings to senior leadership. Instead of doing the presentation herself, she spent time helping the analyst prepare, practiced with her, and then stepped back to let her own the moment.
The analyst didn’t just deliver a successful presentation; she discovered she had leadership capabilities she never knew existed. Today, she leads a team of analysts and is known for developing others who seemed to lack obvious leadership potential.
This is the essence of development focus: creating experiences where people discover capabilities they didn’t know they had and develop character through increasingly challenging responsibilities.
Empowerment Philosophy: Creating Independence, Not Dependence
The fourth element of character multiplication is perhaps the most counterintuitive: true leadership development makes itself unnecessary.
Most leaders unconsciously create dependence. They become indispensable by being the source of decisions, solutions, and direction. Character multipliers do the opposite: they systematically work themselves out of a job by developing independent thinking and decision-making capability in others.
Empowerment Philosophy Elements:
Decision-Making Development: Rather than making decisions for people, character multipliers teach decision-making processes and gradually transfer decision authority as capability develops.
System Thinking: They help people understand the broader context and systems within which they operate, enabling independent judgment rather than rule-following.
Failure Learning: They allow people to make mistakes and learn from them rather than preventing all failures through micromanagement.
Authority Transfer: As people develop character and capability, character multipliers consciously transfer real authority, not just responsibility.
I learned the power of this approach from a military officer who explained the difference between command and control leadership versus mission-type leadership. Command and control tells people exactly what to do and how to do it. Mission-type leadership defines the objective and constraints, then trusts people to figure out the best approach.
“My job,” he said, “is to develop officers who can accomplish the mission even if I’m not there to tell them what to do. That means developing their judgment, not just their compliance.”
The same principle applies in business contexts. Character multipliers develop people who can handle increasing responsibility not because they follow instructions well, but because they’ve developed the character and judgment to make good decisions independently.
The ultimate test of character multiplication is this: do the people you develop go on to develop others?
The Ancient Wisdom of Character Formation
This approach to leadership development isn’t new; it’s a return to ancient wisdom about human flourishing.
The Greeks called it paideia, character formation through education and lived example. They understood that excellence of character (arete) cannot be taught through instruction alone; it must be developed through relationship with those who embody it.
Aristotle wrote in the Nicomachean Ethics that we become virtuous by practicing virtue, just as we become skilled musicians by practicing music. But he also emphasized that we need models of virtue to understand what we’re practicing toward.
Character multipliers serve as these models, not perfect examples, but authentic examples of people committed to character development who create environments where others can develop the same commitment.
The Socratic method is another example of character multiplication in practice. Socrates didn’t lecture about wisdom; he asked questions that helped people discover their own ignorance and develop their own thinking capability. He multiplied philosophical thinking by developing the capacity for philosophical thinking in others.
Modern character multiplication follows the same principle: developing capacity rather than demonstrating capability.
Practical Character Multiplication
Let me give you concrete ways to implement the Character Multiplication Model in your own leadership context:
Daily Character Multiplication Practices
Morning Character Check: Before entering your work environment, take five minutes to consider: “What kind of character am I going to demonstrate today, and how can I create opportunities for others to develop character?”
Development Conversations: In every interaction with team members, include at least one question designed to develop their thinking rather than just gather information.
Pattern Recognition: Pay attention to the character patterns you’re modeling and the character patterns emerging in your team. Are people becoming more independent or more dependent? More thoughtful or more reactive?
Opportunity Creation: Look for stretch opportunities that will challenge people to develop character qualities they’ll need for their next level of responsibility.
Weekly Character Development Reviews
Individual Investment: Spend dedicated time with each person focusing on their character development journey, not just their performance metrics.
System Assessment: Evaluate whether your team’s systems and processes are developing character or creating dependence.
Feedback Integration: Ask team members what they’re learning about themselves and how you can better support their development.
Monthly Character Multiplication Assessment
Independence Measurement: Are people becoming more capable of independent decision-making and problem-solving?
Leadership Pipeline: Are people from your team being promoted or recruited for leadership positions elsewhere?
Character Contagion: Are the character qualities you’re developing starting to show up in how team members interact with each other?
Legacy Planning: If you left tomorrow, would the character-based culture continue, or would it depend on your presence?
The Multiplication Effect
Character multiplication creates exponential rather than linear impact. When you develop one person’s character, you influence everyone they will ever lead throughout their career. When they multiply character in others, the impact continues to compound across organizations and generations.
I’ve seen this multiplication effect play out repeatedly. A character multiplier develops five people who become character multipliers themselves. Those five develop twenty-five others. Those twenty-five develop 125 more. Within a few generations, thousands of people have been influenced by the original character multiplier’s investment.
This is how authentic leaders create lasting change: not through their own direct impact, but through the character they develop in others who go on to develop character in still others.
The most rewarding part of character multiplication isn’t your own success; it’s watching people you’ve developed exceed your own capabilities and go on to develop others who exceed theirs.
The Character Multiplier Challenge
Character multiplication requires a fundamental shift in how you think about leadership success. Instead of measuring your value by how much people need you, you measure your value by how much people can accomplish without you.
Instead of creating followers who execute your vision, you create leaders who develop their own vision aligned with shared values.
Instead of being the source of answers, you become the source of better questions.
The ultimate test of leadership isn’t what you achieve, it’s what you create in others.
Character multipliers understand that their greatest legacy isn’t their own success, but the leaders they develop who go on to develop other leaders.
This connects directly to the foundation we built in previous parts of this series. The authority of example establishes the credibility for character multiplication. Creating environments for excellence provides the context where character can be safely developed and tested. Character multiplication is how you scale that authority and those environments through others.
When you combine authentic character, excellent environments, and character multiplication, you create leadership that reproduces itself across organizations and generations.
The question isn’t whether you have leadership potential. The question is whether you’re developing that potential in yourself and systematically developing it in others.
Most leaders create followers. Great leaders create leaders. Character multipliers create the kind of leaders who create other leaders.
Final Thought
The ancient Greeks understood something about human development that we’ve largely forgotten in our metrics-obsessed culture: true excellence cannot be manufactured; it can only be cultivated through relationship with those who embody it.
Aristotle wrote that we become excellent by practicing excellence in the presence of excellent people. Not perfect people, excellent people. People committed to arete (excellence) as a way of being, not just achieving.
Character multiplication is the ancient practice of paideia, character formation through lived example, applied to modern leadership development.
When you choose to become a character multiplier, you’re not just improving your leadership effectiveness. You’re participating in a tradition that stretches back thousands of years: the development of human potential through authentic relationship and challenging responsibility.
But here’s what most leadership development gets catastrophically wrong: they treat character as a means to an end rather than an end in itself. They develop character to improve performance rather than developing performance as an expression of character.
Character multipliers understand that character IS the point. Everything else, results, influence, legacy, flows from character development, not toward it.
This is why character multiplication creates exponential impact while performance management creates linear improvement. Character developed in one person influences everyone they’ll ever lead. Performance improved in one person affects only that person’s immediate output.
The path forward isn’t complex, but it is demanding. Start with yourself. Commit to your own character development not as a leadership strategy, but as a life philosophy. Then create environments where others can discover and develop capabilities they didn’t know they possessed.
The world needs more leaders who create leaders. But first, it needs more people committed to becoming the kind of person worth following.
The choice is yours. Will you manage performance or multiply character? Will you create followers or develop leaders? Will you optimize systems or cultivate souls?
Your legacy won’t be what you achieved; it will be who you developed and who they go on to develop.
Which kind of leader are you becoming?
