The 25th Annual Global Survey of CEOs conducted by PwC identified six priorities for CEOs in the Asia Pacific region to address the environmental, social, and governance pressures on businesses that hinge on climate action. These priorities include adopting a mindset for long-term value creation, focusing on building local capability, reframing ESG conversations with multi-stakeholders, creating a diverse talent pool, aligning incentives, and enabling cooperation with various groups.

These priorities have important implications for educators who aim to prepare students to become the next generation of corporate leaders. The survey highlights a need for talent with empathy and the ability to build sustainable relationships. As a result, educators believe that these values should be incorporated into character education to better equip students with the skills they need to become effective leaders.

Character education focuses on building an individual's personality through exhibiting good manners and invoking their conscience to assimilate positive behaviours, such as empathy, honesty, responsibility, and respect for others. The goal is to nurture future citizens with good conscience and morality, which will help companies, societies, and nations as individuals will self-govern and understand their accountability for their actions.

While character education begins at home, institutions of higher learning also play a critical role in reinforcing these values. A practical approach to character education is to embed these values and attributes into the curriculum, which requires a paradigm shift in teaching that emphasises the importance of self-governed actions and the consequences they have.

Several initiatives set the pace for character education, including the Oxford Global Leadership Initiative, the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University, and the Oxford Character Project. By incorporating character education into the curriculum, future leaders in both business and the community will be better equipped to respond to any challenges they may face.

Professor Dr Susela Devi K. Suppiah 
Sunway Business School 
Email: @email

This article was first published in Business Today, 30 April 2022.