My involvement with the concept of creating a culture of character and competence began with a discussion with Tom Hill, the CEO and Chairman of Kimray, Inc. and founder of Character First. Kimray is an Oklahoma City based manufacturer of oil and gas control valves. Founded in 1948, they continue to be a leader in their industry and are a profitable and generous company. At the time, I was the vice-president of a local university and was trying to understand how to motivate my team to consider a new approach to some of the challenges we were facing. Tom listened to some of my concerns and then asked an important question. He said, “When you look back over the past year, how many of the challenges you had with your team were character based and how many were competency based?”