The Colonel said, “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.”
So, let’s be clear. No leader is perfect. That would be an impossible standard to aspire to. What we can aspire to is our best. Significant leadership requires challenging yourself to be the best version of yourself 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.”
In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling, another wise leader, the wizard Albus Dumbledore tells Harry, “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 that 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.
