We advance the discussion that each leader has a moral component that can be defined as character that is distinct from values personality and other similar constructs. We seek toclarify what underpins forms of character-based leadership and exemplary leader behaviors.  We build out our previous discussion (Hannah & Avolio this issue) that the locus of character is within the leader and is an integral part of the leader's self-system. Further we extend the domain of character research toward its upper bounds and introduce the notion of ethos as a distinct class of character and relate ethos to extra-ethical virtuous behaviors. Finally we place character in relationship to collectives and discuss bidirectional influences operating between leader character and the context.