One of the key ingredients to successful leadership training and coaching programs are role models who demonstrate outstanding character.  If people can’t trust you, they won’t follow you.  People of integrity often seem to fall into leadership, but is character something that can be learned through training or coaching?  Or are leaders born, not made?

Leadership Training And Coaching Depends On Great Role Models

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One way to develop character through leadership training and coaching is to provide role models who demonstrate integrity above and beyond what people would ever expect.  Jim Burke, the CEO of Johnson & Johnson during the Tylenol murders, responded to the crisis in a way that

is still used as example of character years later.  He responded to the fatalities produced by someone who contaminated packages of Tylenol with cyanide by recalling every single container of Tylenol across the country.  He then highly publicized the potential hazards of taking the product until new packaging could be developed.  Many people thought this decision was going to be the end of the company.

Character and Integrity Can Be Contagious

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During one interview, Jim Burke said that his decision wasn’t difficult even though others thought the results would be disastrous to the company at that time.  He felt that he really had no other choice since for years the company had told its employees and the public that Johnson and Johnson was committed  to do the right thing – no matter the price.  The company had created an environment where there was no other choice but to take the high ground.  Even at the risk of the business going bankrupt.

Would Jim Burke make the same decision in another environment?  I would like to think so.  Either way, this story shows the effect that leadership training and coaching can make within a company and perhaps even the world.


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Colette Seymann
JTS Advisors Bi-Designated Strategy and Accountability Coach