From Knowing to Becoming: A Tech-enabled Effectiveness Framework for Character Development (TARGET)

Despite billions spent annually on leadership development, meaningful and lasting change remains elusive. We propose that a critical missing ingredient is sustained attention to who leaders are – their character. While most programs emphasize competencies, few address character as the embodied habits of thought, feeling, and action that shape judgment and decision-making. This chapter argues that character must be elevated alongside competence as a central pillar of leadership development. A key challenge is that character, as a set of habits, is difficult to cultivate with consistency and depth. When thoughtfully applied, however, technology offers a promising means to support and sustain this growth. We introduce the TARGET framework – tailored, accessible, repeated, gratifying, enduring, and transformative – a practical model for designing and evaluating character development strategies. Building on the widely adopted seven strategies of character formation, the framework draws on interdisciplinary research and is informed by the lead author’s experience co-developing a smartphone application for character development. Examples from leadership programs illustrate how digital tools can enhance – rather than replace – the process of virtue cultivation by enabling personalized, data-informed, and habit-based support for daily practice. Digital approaches also introduce risks, including superficial engagement and metric fixation. We examine these tensions and propose design principles and future directions, including the development of a validated assessment tool. Ultimately, this chapter offers both a framework and a call to action: to use digital technologies in leadership development not for convenience, but to make character development sustainable, scalable, and essential to modern leadership.