6 minute read
The Character Diamond
The last couple of modules have had us exploring our “Character Diamond.” In case you are not aware, the Character Diamond is a tool used to identify the multiple facets of an individual's character. In the entertainment industry, the Character Diamond helps artists and writers create lifelike characters with strengths, weaknesses, and negative and positive inner conflict. It is what enables the fictional characters to have depth and substance. Furthermore, it is what allows the audience to relate to them.
In leadership, the Character Diamond is a tool that helps us get to know and understand the multifaceted nature of who we are as individuals. It looks at the strengths and weaknesses and the positive and negative inner attributes. It reveals the contradictions that live inside every one of us.
Perhaps the most significant thing I have learned through the exercise is the importance of my weaknesses. Up until I took this course, I generally loathed my weaknesses and shortcomings. I had this idea that if I wanted to be a good leader, I needed to overcome all weakness. I needed to become superhuman. I needed to become perfect. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48, KJV).
What I have learned is it is our weaknesses that allow us to connect with other people. I had believed it was our strengths that connect us with others. And our strengths do indeed play a part in how we relate with others. Our strengths are the things that can give others confidence in us and our abilities. And from a distance, our strengths may be the things that draw people toward us, at least initially. However, our strengths are not the attributes that provide power and depth to our emotional connection with others at the personal level. Our strengths are not the hook; our weaknesses are.
One of the examples used by my mentor was Superman, the superhero. Over the years, there have been multiple times when fans' interest in Superman waned. During these times, ratings dropped, and people no longer watched movies or read comic books about Superman to the extent they had done so previously. The reason? He had become unrelatable for one reason or another.
(One example involved a time when Superman became too strong. He had no apparent weaknesses—the Man of Steel. Superman could fly, was indestructible, had laser eyes, and could burn through anything. He always got the villain and came out the hero. He was caring and kind to all the right people and heroic and protective against evil. Even his rose-coloured view of his father just put him beyond the reach of many. Nobody could relate to him. Then creators and writers reworked the character Clark Kent, the hidden, weaker, behind-the-scenes character of Superman. You can see some of the changes here: 10 Ways Brian Bendis' Superman Changed Clark Kent | CBR (https://bit.ly/2QDaQk0)
When the writers revealed the weaknesses of Superman or brought out some contradictory component of his character, fans' interest and enthusiasm rekindled. Superman became more relatable. In 2000 and 2001, the release of the film Smallville demonstrated this. The film, released right after the tragedy of 9/11, showed that people could relate to Superman as a superhero without the cape and full development of his powers. The film depicted a young Clark Kent before and during the time he discovered his superpowers. A YouTube documentary called The Amazing Story of Superman by Warner Bros. Entertainment (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCIRmVKxESQ) highlights some of this information.
The Bible reveals that God and the apostle Paul both understood this about themselves. In 2 Corinthians 12:9 (ESV), it says, "But he [God/Jesus] said to me [Paul], ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’
Therefore I [Paul] will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me".
Don't miss it. God says His power is made perfect in weakness. And Paul understood his weaknesses were the things that allowed God's power to rest on him more fully.
How many of you can relate to God Almighty as self-existent, eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent? Have you always existed? Are you immortal, in and of yourself? Are you all-powerful, all-knowing, and can you be present everywhere at the same time? No, of course not.
Those attributes of God inspire us. They give us confidence in Him as our Creator. However, on that emotional, personal connection level, those characteristics about God are not what allows us to relate to Him. If that is all I knew about God, I would be afraid of Him.
The same is true with us. Our strengths may help inspire others or give others confidence in us, but our strengths alone may also be the very attributes that keep others at a distance from us. Maybe our strengths incite fear or insecurity in others. Our strengths may be the same things that isolate us. It is our weaknesses that allow us to connect with others. Our weaknesses are what draw people to us.
God, the self-existent, pre-incarnate, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-wise God, condescended to our level by taking upon Himself our nature. The self-existent, independent Creator God became a baby wrapped in the arms of His mother. The all-knowing, all-wise God became the toddler and teenage Jesus. The all-powerful, Almighty God became the man Christ Jesus, who Roman soldiers arrested, stripped of His clothing, mocked, beat, spit upon, and finally nailed and staked to a cross, where He died a humiliating and painful death. "If you are the son of God, save yourself" were the words yelled out to the eternal, all-powerful, self-existent One hanging there on the cross. The One with authority to command legions of angels was submitted to the Roman soldiers and nailed to a cross.
On the cross, it is precisely there that God's power and authority were made perfect. The Creator suffered at the hands of His creation. the Life-giver, giving up His breath for those into whom, through their nostrils, He breathed the breath of life. The immortal God experienced the suffering of mortal humanity.
It was the weaknesses and contradictions of Clark Kent that gave Superman the power to connect with audiences.
It was God Almighty taking upon Himself humanity that gave Jesus the ability to connect with humankind.
To whom can you relate better? The manof-steel, laser-eyed, cape-sporting, soaring Superman, or Clark Kent?
To whom can you relate better? The Almighty, immortal, all-knowing, ever-present God, or the Man, Christ Jesus?
Understanding this and identifying the facets of my Character Diamond is perhaps the most incredible, fulfilling exercise I have ever done. I would highly recommend it; then read 2 Corinthians 12.
Eric Ollila | Communication/IT/Media Director Alberta Conference
