(Good or Bad) Leaders Set the Example

Note: The following is an excerpt (Chapter 13) from my book, MAXIMIZE Your Leadership Potential. There are 30 three page chapters which also make it the perfect tool for conducting 30 day book studies with your team or peers.

LEADING BY EXAMPLE

You’re always teaching what you’re modeling, regardless of what you’re teaching.

"Example isn't another way to teach, it's the only way to teach." ~ Albert Einstein

There’s nothing worse for a team than to have their leader expect one thing from them while he/she is doing something completely different to them. Someone is always watching, so the question is not, “Are you a role model?” The real question is, “What kind of role model will you be?”

Do you want a positive, upbeat, motivated team? Then, you must be a positive, upbeat, motivated leader. A negative, demoralizing, finger pointing boss will always have a negative, demoralized, finger pointing team.

That’s what low impact leaders do. They blame. They don’t take responsibility. Their actions always provide the most powerful example for their team.

I want to share what I think is one of the worst examples of poor modeling by low impact leaders that I see, and I have seen it a lot. High impact leaders would never do this. However, weak, insecure, low impact leaders do it on a daily basis. It’s just who they are, and worse, it’s what they model.

I have heard bosses blame their boss repeatedly when the schedule changes, the hours change, or some other change comes down the pipeline from above. The low impact leader is often more frustrated than their team by the change. Once they voice and act out their frustrations as they deliver the news of the change to the team, the team usually follows their leader’s example. They moan, groan, and whine just like their boss did. Again, this is not high impact leader behavior. This is low impact leader behavior. High impact leaders shine. Low impact leaders whine.

I’ve been there to witness it all play out many times. The boss (low impact leader) shows up out of nowhere. The boss you never seem to see unless there’s a problem, a change, or some information needs to be passed along. The boss pulls everyone together. Once everyone is in a huddle, the boss usually begins by saying, “I’ve got some bad news.”

That’s not the way to motivate and inspire a team to positively accept the change. But, the boss often sets the stage for their communication by defining what they are about to say as “bad” news. Until that moment, it was simply news. The boss chooses to label the information as “bad” news. Next, the boss reinforces it to be sure everyone sees it as “bad” by painting a “bad” picture with their words. The team already knows what to expect because they’ve seen and heard this behavior modeled by their boss many times before.

After saying it’s “bad” news, the boss immediately begins to tell the team who or what is to blame for the change. Often, the boss blames multiple people and multiple departments. Sometimes, they even blame their customers.

Their low impact leader's goal: Be sure the team doesn’t blame them or think they had anything to do with the “bad” news, other than delivering it.

Next, the boss delivers the “bad” news to the team as they shake their heads, roll their eyes, smirk, and voice their frustrations to affirm it is “bad” news. Best case, the boss listens to the frustrations and smooths over as much as possible before leaving the area. Worst case, they simply deliver the “bad” news, turn around, and walk away. Regardless of when the boss leaves, it’s not over.

Once the boss leaves the area, guess what the team does? They blame all those the boss blamed. But, they also blame someone new: their boss. Yes, they blame their boss too. They stand around in their huddle and blame the boss pointing fingers just as they have been trained by the boss to do when something changes.

Their low impact leader has perfectly modeled for the team: When something changes, we should blame someone. There’s a good chance the boss learned this from his boss.

Their morale has been lowered. Their productivity has been lowered. Their opinions of others have been lowered. And, their trust in their boss and each other has been lowered.

The example I just shared creates distrust among the team, not trust. When you talk about and blame others behind their back, you are modeling who you are on the inside to those watching from the outside. Without actually saying it, you are communicating to everyone, “If I’ll talk about and blame others behind their back, I’ll do the same to you.”

A boss that blames others when there are changes, is a low impact leader. They are not high impact leaders. High impact leaders model well developed character and accept responsibility for improving morale, increasing productivity, improving opinions of others, and building trust among their team and in their organizations. When there’s a change, high impact leaders proactively deal with it in a positive manner.

Modeling is so important because who you are is who you attract. High impact leaders are able to build high impact teams because they attract team members that are like them. If you want to create a high impact team or be on a high impact team, you must become a high impact leader.

Do you want your team to listen to you? Then, you must listen to them. Do you want your team to trust you? Then, you must trust them. Do you want your team to accept and embrace change in a positive way? Then, you must accept and embrace change in a positive way. Do you prefer your team not to blame you? Then, you must not blame others.

As I’ve shared with you already, high impact leadership is not about you. But, it starts with you. Who you are matters. If you want to achieve more on the outside, you must first become more on the inside. You get better by choice, not by chance.

"We don't tend to drift into better behavior." ~ Bill Hybels

FREE downloads available:

Click here now for a FREE download of the entire leadership principle-packed Chapter 11, "Get Out of the Way and Lead" from the first book in my Demystifying Leadership Series: Defining Influence. In this nearly 20 page chapter, I share about:

·      Managing vs Leading

·      Scarcity vs Abundance

·      Formal Authority vs Moral Authority

·      The 5 Types of Leaders

·      Compare/Contrast 17 Manager vs Leader Perspectives

Click here to access the first 5 chapters of “Blue-Collar Leadership: Leading from the Front Lines.”

·      Ch. 1: I’m one of you.

·      Ch.2: I believe in you.

·      Ch.3: You’re in the perfect place.

·      Ch. 4: Common sense is never enough.

·      Ch.5: There is an “I” in Team.

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Make an impact!

Mack Story

My passion is to help you live with abundance, achieve success, choose significance, and leave a legacy. In other words, I want to help you make a High Impact !