Lead-Down Principle #5
MODEL THE BEHAVIOR YOU DESIRE
One of my favorite leadership books is Learning to Lead (Word, 1986), by Fred Smith. I remember very vividly where I was when I first read it. I was on a plane flying back to San Diego. It stands out in my memory because when I read his ideas on “incarnational leadership,” I pulled out a legal pad to begin brainstorming. In the book Fred said that when a leader’s identity and actions are consistent, the results he gets are consistent. When they are inconsistent, then so are the results.
On my legal pad, I created three columns. At the top of the first, I wrote, “What I Am.” There I intended to write down the qualities I desired to embrace as a leader. At the top of the second column, I wrote, “What I Do,” the actions that would be consistent with each character trait. The third column contained the results of consistent character and behavior.
WHAT I AM WHAT I DO RESULTS
Character driven Do right Credibility
Relational Care Community
Encourager Believe in people High morale
Visionary Set goals Direction
Student Learn Growth
Inspiring Motivate Action
Selfless Focus on others Reaching out
Confident Make decisions Security
A list like this can be a real eye-opener, because when we don’t get the results we want, we are often tempted to try to place the blame outside of ourselves.
THE LEADER’S IMPACT
Just as consistency can create power in your personal life, it can also create power in your leadership. Leaders set the tone and the pace for all the people working for them. Therefore, they need to be what they want to see. Let me explain how this works.
Leaders need to be what they want to see.
YOUR BEHAVIOR DETERMINES THE CULTURE
One of the easiest places to see distinct cultures is in sports. For example, think about the NFL’s Oakland Raiders. For years they have prided themselves on their bad-boy image. Their owner, Al Davis, is a renegade. Their players are tough guys. Even their fans follow suit. During a game, just look at the area in their stadium that they call “the black hole.” Your culture determines whom you attract. The behavior of that team for decades has created its culture.
Think about another team in the NFL, the Dallas Cowboys. For a long time, the team was a perennial winner, and for years the Cowboys were called “America’s Team.” Tom Landry, the team’s coach at that time, helped to create that culture. After Landry left the team, the behavior of the coaches and players began to change—and so did the culture. Nobody—except maybe an occasional Texan—calls the Cowboys “America’s Team” anymore.
If you desire to instill a particular value into your organization’s culture, then you need to ask yourself whether it is an identifiable behavior among the people of your organization—starting with yourself. And the only way to change the culture is to change your behavior.
YOUR ATTITUDE DETERMINES THE ATMOSPHERE
Have you ever worked for someone who had a glass-is-half-empty kind of attitude? No matter what the circumstances, the outlook was gloomy. It is night and day different from working for someone whose attitude is upbeat and optimistic. The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.
The leader’s attitude is like a thermostat for the place she works. If her attitude is good, the atmosphere is pleasant, and the environment is easy to work in. But if her attitude is bad, the temperature is insufferable. Nobody wants to work in an environment that is overheated or icy cold.
YOUR VALUES DETERMINE THE DECISIONS
Roy Disney, brother and partner of Walt Disney, said, “It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.” Not only is that true, but I’d add that it’s also not hard to stay with the decisions you make when they are based on your values. Decisions that are not consistent with our values are always short-lived.
Decisions that are not consistent with our values are always short-lived.
Whatever you embrace will come out in the decisions of your people. If you value shortcuts, then your employees will make decisions that value speed over quality. If you are insensitive to others’ feelings, then your staff will make decisions that don’t take people’s feelings into account. If you exhibit even the slightest tolerance for dishonesty, then you can bet that someone on the team will think it is okay to make decisions that violate the standards of integrity.
YOUR INVESTMENT DETERMINES THE RETURN
Just like in the world of finance, the only way you get a return with people is to make an investment in them. The seeds you sow determine the harvest you reap. Our problem is that we often focus on the reaping rather than the sowing.
What’s worse than training your people and losing them? Not training them and keeping them.
I’ve already written about the importance of developing and equipping employees, so I don’t need to say a lot more here. I’ll give you just one thought: What’s worse than training your people and losing them? Not training them and keeping them.
YOUR CHARACTER DETERMINES THE TRUST
Do people trust you? Are the people who work for you quick to believe that you have their best interests at heart? Or do they question your intentions and weigh your motives when you introduce them to a new idea? The answers to those questions can be traced back to your character.
Trust is not given nor can it be assumed simply because you have a leadership position with others. Trust has to be earned, and it usually comes when you are tested. Whether you pass or fail the test is almost always determined by your character. And here’s the really tough thing. When you went to school, 60 percent was probably a passing grade; or if your school had particularly high standards, maybe 70 percent. When it comes to trust, the only passing grade is 100 percent. If people can’t trust you all of the time, then they will consider you untrustworthy.
YOUR WORK ETHIC DETERMINES THE PRODUCTIVITY
I love the story of the crusty old Scotsman who worked hard and expected the people he led to do the same. His workers would tease, “Hey Scotty, don’t you know that Rome wasn’t built in a day?”
“Aye, I know that,” he would answer. “But I wasn’t the foreman on that job.”
Leaders truly do set the tone on the job when it comes to productivity. Employees soon feel very uncomfortable if they are lax in their work ethic but they can see their boss working diligently. Employees who possess strong character quickly feel prompted to pick up the pace.
Thomas Jefferson said, “It’s wonderful how much can be done if we are always working.” If you want your people to always be working, you had better be too.
YOUR GROWTH DETERMINES THE POTENTIAL
The most important leadership lesson I teach is the Law of the Lid: “Leadership ability determines a person’s level of effectiveness.” If your leadership is a 5 (on a scale from 1 to 10), then your effectiveness will be no greater than a 5. Leadership is the glass ceiling of personal achievement.
The same is true of the people you lead. Your leadership, if it is not continually growing, can be a lid to the potential of your people. Why? Because you teach what you know, but you reproduce what you are. You can’t give people what you do not have. If you want to increase the potential of your team, you need to keep growing yourself.
One of my favorite examples of leadership modeling can be found in the story of David, king of ancient Israel. Most people are familiar with the story of David and Goliath. During a war between the Hebrew and Philistine peoples, Goliath, a warrior-giant, challenged any individual who would fight him to a winner-take-all battle. Saul, Israel’s king, cowered in his tent—and so did his army. But David, a shepherd boy whose older brothers stood among the cowards, challenged Goliath and defeated him in combat. The incident is often recounted as a children’s story.
Most people familiar with the Bible know that David became king. What many don’t know is that in the years before he ascended the throne, David drew warriors to him and created a strong private army. And those warriors became like David, to the point where several of them also became giant killers.
Though the results are not always that dramatic, it is always true that followers become like their leaders. They are influenced by their leaders’ values. They adopt their working methods. They even emulate many of their quirks and habits. That’s why we must always be aware of our own conduct before criticizing the people who work for us. If you don’t like what your people are doing, first take a look at yourself.
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