“Your team will look to you for more than just how to do their jobs. In many ways, they will look to you for how to live their lives. You have to be up to that measure as well.” – The Colonel
No leader is perfect. That would be an impossible standard to aspire to. Leadership requires challenging yourself to be the best version of you every day—and then aspiring to be better tomorrow. Dad always said, “It takes a lifetime to build a reputation of character, and just one ah – poop to tear it down.” (Well, that’s not the word HE used, but we’ll go with that.)
In the second installment of the Harry Potter series, the Chamber of Secrets, the wise wizard Albus Dumbledore tells Potter, “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” Your team is watching your choices, your life choices as well as your work choices. They will not separate one from the other.
Leadership requires integrity, and integrity means doing what is right simply because it is right—every time, whether anyone is looking or not.
But don’t kid yourself, someone is always looking. Your team is observing you all the time to gain clues on how to work, how to treat others, how to communicate, how to handle tough situations, and how to hone their own character.
If your behavior doesn’t rise to their expectations—whether at work, or outside of it, you will lose a fragment of your ability to lead. If enough fragments get lost, you will lose the ability altogether.
It’s not your responsibility to be perfect, and it’s not your job to parent your team. It is your responsibility, though, to set the best example for them that you are capable of setting—because they’re watching.
Read Lauren’s Whitepaper on The Nine Essentials of Significant Leadership.