It started, as many things in Oxford do, with a conversation after lunch. It was the spring of 2013, and a group of professors gathered in a college common room. Their discussion turned to a troubling theme—a widely reported crisis of leadership across sectors and around the world. In case after case, in banking, politics, business, journalism, technology, sport, the military, and beyond, leaders were failing to uphold the standards of integrity and responsibility demanded by their role. The heart of the problem was not a lack of leadership skills or technical expertise; it came down to culture and character.
For institutions like the University of Oxford, the responsibility was impossible to ignore. After all, we take pride in educating students who go on to hold positions of influence around the world. As one faculty member put it, “there is no doubt that Oxford produces thinkers and leaders, but are we producing wise thinkers and good leaders?”
This conversation and the generous support of the Templeton World Charity Foundation gave rise to the Oxford Character Project. Our mission was also a research question: How can we educate a generation of wise thinkers and good leaders who will further the flourishing of individuals, organizations, and societies around the world?
How character promotes flourishing
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The idea that underlies the Oxford Character Project, that virtuous leadership is a key driver of human flourishing and the common good, is far from original. It was a premise of classical thinkers such as Aristotle and Confucius, a driving force of the European Renaissance, and an organizing principle of higher education through to the beginning of the 20th century.
However, such an emphasis on character did not fare well through the last century. Modernization was based on technological progress and the design of systems and structures to optimize economic outcomes. Values and virtues—once foundational to education and public life—were increasingly limited to the private realm. In the modern world, public life was to be ruled by facts, not by values.
Fast forward to the present, and a strong distinction between measurable facts and intangible values is no longer as plausible, not least because of huge strides in the science of human flourishing. Just this year, a paper in Nature announced the first results of the Global Flourishing Study, a longitudinal study of over 200,000 people in more than 20 countries to explore aspects and drivers of flourishing. Led by researchers at Baylor University and Harvard’s Human Flourishing Program, the study defines flourishing as “the relative attainment of a state in which all aspects of a person’s life are good, including the contexts in which that person lives.”
Alongside other dimensions of flourishing—mental and physical health, financial and material stability, meaning, and close social relationships—are character and virtue. Virtues (positive character qualities) such as gratitude, justice, wisdom, courage, temperance, kindness, and hope are at the heart of flourishing lives and societies. Dorota Weziak-Bialowolska and her colleagues conducted studies in the U.S. and Mexico to examine the impact of character on flourishing. They found that people with good character (orientation to promote good) tend to be more satisfied with life and happier, report better mental and physical health, and feel more socially connected and purposeful.
Character is a component of human flourishing. But flourishing is not simply an individual phenomenon. It is supported by all kinds of institutions: families, schools, health care, transportation, hospitality, media, culture, business, construction, community organizations, sports clubs, local and national governments, technology providers, banks, and religious communities. This is where leadership comes in. All these institutions, and more, are central to the flourishing of individuals and societies. But they need ethical and effective leadership—character-based leadership—to contribute to the greater good.
In 2023, we investigated character-based leadership around the world, identifying 720 papers that report on the impact of character-based leadership. They find benefits for individuals (e.g., well-being, sense of meaning, job satisfaction, creativity and innovation), organizations (e.g., ethical climate, organizational performance, team cohesion, interpersonal trust), and society (e.g., corruption prevention, social justice, sustainability).
Purpose, courage, love, and hope
Since 2014, we have been conducting research, developing programs, and building partnerships to advance character-based leadership. Just this year, we released Leading with Character, a free online course developed together with the Legatum Foundation and the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard. The course was designed by a global group of academics and practitioners to support people around the world to be better leaders and build a better world. It has so far been taken up by 2,000 learners in 122 countries.
The course focuses on four central virtues: purpose, courage, love, and hope. If leaders were to cultivate these virtues, if we could even strengthen them by a few percent, we believe there would be a marked impact on leadership performance and societal flourishing.
Purpose is defined by researcher Bill Damon and his colleagues as “a forward-looking intention to pursue goals meaningful to the self and beneficial to others.” Purpose supports vision and direction, enabling leaders to inspire followers, unite strategy with mission, and pursue goals that advance the common good. There is a close relationship between values and purpose. We have found that helping students to reflect on their values, strengths, and goals has enabled them to clarify their sense of purpose.
Courage in leadership involves acting in accordance with one’s values in the face of difficulty, risk, or discomfort. Leadership is tough, and fear of failure or loss can cause leaders to shrink back from the actions and decisions needed to build a better world. Courage enables leaders to step forward. In the Leading with Character course, we focus on the need for courage in everyday leadership contexts. As one student put it, “I’ve realized that courage doesn’t have to be something that is loud or bold; anything you do in life that takes effort towards goodness is courage.”
Love is a word rarely used in relation to leadership. It should be. Understood as a commitment to the good of others, leading with love fosters security, trust, and collaboration. It is expressed as leaders put others’ interests before their own, looking for the best in others and acting with kindness even when making hard decisions. As one student put it, “I have learned that love in leadership is not about sentimentality but about creating meaningful connections, valuing people, and fostering an environment where others feel seen, heard, and empowered.”
Hope is not simply a positive expectation; that’s optimism. Hope is like a muscle that is developed by repeated practice. It is a focused attention on the possibility of a good future, especially in the face of difficulty, challenges, and uncertainties. Hope empowers leaders to continually work toward that future. As Napoleon is famously said to have put it, leaders are also “dealers in hope”; they can cultivate hope in communities and organizations by the stories they tell and examples they set.
Good leadership for a better world
Leaders certainly need expertise in strategy, technology, risk management, and communication. Virtuous leadership—leading with purpose, courage, love, and hope—elevates these competencies as a force for good.
Our work at the Oxford Character Project is built on the premise that the leaders we need to face the many challenges and uncertainties of our time require the highest levels of excellence in both competence and character. As we head into our second decade, we are building partnerships for the future, planning new research on character-based leadership in politics, business, and sport, and developing programs that will support a new generation of leaders at Oxford and around the world.
