The Colonel always said to me, “Kiddo – people will follow what you say, or people will follow what you do. And given a choice, if there’s a difference, they’re gonna follow what you do.”
This means what you say has to be in alignment in alignment with what you do. So, if you say that for this particular project, it’s all hands on deck at 8 am, and then you show up at 10. You’re out of alignment. If you say to them, to get us through this very tough time, I’m gonna have to cut some benefits, and there just won’t be any bonuses. But you don’t cut your own benefits or go ahead and give yourself a bonus; you are out of alignment.
Your team will follow your lead whether you want them to or not. And not just in the office. They’ll pay attention to how you treat the cashier at the grocery store if you toss your candy wrapper on the sidewalk rather than in the rubbish bin and how you speak to people who seemingly can do nothing for you.
You may have heard the term rank has its privileges. That’s bogus. No leader ever said rank has its privileges. True leaders understand that rank has responsibility. There were only three ways to lead by example, by example, you guessed it, the third one is by example, which is why number seven of The Nine Essentials of Significant Leadership is lead by example.
Read Lauren’s Whitepaper on The Nine Essentials of Significant Leadership.
