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What happens when someone on the front lines of crisis begins to champion character as the foundation for resilience, leadership, and peak performance?
James Rychard—fire service leader, intercollegiate athlete, and national advocate for character-based leadership—joins us to explore how daily practices can fuel both peak performance and lasting well-being.
🧠 What you’ll hear:
🍁 A bold vision: what Canada could become if character-based leadership started at the top
🔥 Why character—not competence—is the key to sustainable excellence
💪 How firefighting mirrors elite athletics in both mindset and structure
🚨 The hidden burnout risks beyond emergency calls—and how to manage them
🧭 What Benjamin Franklin can teach us about self-assessment today
📉 Why performance drops when character goes unchecked in leadership
📱 How the Virtuosity app helps James stay grounded—shift work and all
If you’ve ever felt the tension between going hard and staying well—or wondered how to lead with strength and humanity—this episode is for you.
Resources
• The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/The-Autobiography-of-Benjamin-Franklin/Benjamin-Franklin/9781416598343)
• Ben & Me: From Temperance to Humility - Stumbling Through Ben Franklin's Thirteen Virtues, One Unvirtuous Day at a Time (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9308927-ben-and-me)
• Character Quotient Assessment in Forbes (https://www.forbes.com/sites/marycrossan/2025/03/26/from-good-to-great-10-ways-to-elevate-your-character-quotient/)
• Leader Character Framework with Culture, Virtues, and Vices (https://virtuositycharacter.ca/organization/storage_production_6e2934b8-3e20-47a7-aa79-59a612f967be/990340a0-9980-4919-9456-ab5640b405a0.pdf)

About Virtuosity

• Website (https://virtuositycharacter.ca/)
• Monthly Newsletter (https://mailchi.mp/virtuositycharacter/subscribe-to-the-virtuosity-monthly-newsletter)
• LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/virtuosity-character)
• Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/virtuositycharacter/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=)

Host, Dr Corey Crossan (https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreycrossan/), is a research and teaching fellow at The Oxford Character Project where she develops and facilitates character development programs for students, industry, and university partners. Corey’s love for elite performance developed as she competed in top-level athletics for most of her life, highlighted by competing as a NCAA Division 1 athlete. Corey translated her understanding of elite performance into a passion for helping individuals and organizations develop sustained excellence. She is also the co-founder of Virtuosity Character, a mobile software application created to support the daily, deliberate practice of character-based leadership development.