How To Be A Role Model As A Leader

Smirks emerge quite quickly when you mention “role model” and “leaders” in the same breath.  Most peoples’ experiences with leaders as role models have been that they encompass the “what not do as a leader” variety.  Hanmen Kyoshi (反面教師) or teacher by negative example, as we have noted in Japanese.  What are some of the things we should be focused on in our quest to become a real role model for our teams?

We can break the role model aspect into four major areas: Self-Aware; Accountability; Others-Focused and Strategic.  Within these four categories, there are eleven sub-categories on which we are going to focus today.  Do a mental audit on yourself and see how many boxes you can check, acknowledging that you are doing a good job.

1.    Self-Aware covers a number of sub-categories:

“Self-Directed”. Leaders have to give others direction, so they must be independent types who don’t have to rely on others to know what to do.  They have to be “Self-Regulated” which is a fancy pants way of saying they need strong personal discipline.  The leader has to decide what needs to be done and then marshals everything needed to get the job done.  This effort has to be sustained over time and that is where the self-discipline aspect kicks in.

“Develop Self” talks about taking 100% responsibility for one’s own career.  Depending on others, or the company in general, to take care of your career is folly.  We need to represent value to an employer, because if we don’t, then we will be replaced by someone who does.  The tricky thing about business is they keep moving the goalposts.  What was required when you started and what is required today may be quite different. Scarily different.

I see so many senior leaders and friends sacked by the organisation, despite many years of loyal and successful service.  A new CEO arrives, a merger takes place or a new direction for the firm is set and the next thing you know, you are out.  If you have been pursuing your own personal growth, then there is a safety factor involved there to enable you to weather the storms.  If you have just been working hard, which is admirable, you are left tired and then on the street.

“Confident” is a vague term, really.  What actually defines being “confident”.  We can recognise it more easily than we can articulate it.  A leader who has confidence speaks in a certain way, with gravitas, with a certain finality.  Hesitation never arises and the body language backs up the confident words.

2.    Accountability is another area with sub-categories:

“Competent” describes our capability to understand the business and do the work.  Most people rise through the ranks, so they have done the jobs their staff are doing, so they know the content well.  Changing jobs and entering as a mid-career hire can sometimes make the competence piece a challenge, though.  We have to be a fast learner to build credibility.

“Honesty and Integrity” are both problem sub-categories.  Honesty is easier to gauge than integrity.  We can see if you are honest and can measure it.  However, while everyone says how important integrity is, defining it is a challenging task.  Saying and doing what you say is a fundamental basis of demonstrating integrity, as is standing for higher ideals.  How do you actually behave when no one is watching? 

3.    Others-Focused is a big sub-category and so not all aspects can be covered here, but we will focus on some key areas:

“Inspiring” is in the eyes of the beholder, so as the boss, you have to create the environment where everyone can be inspired.  We need to uncover what the range of views on the subject are amongst the troops, to get an idea of how we need to appeal to everyone’s individual needs.  This means making time to talk to people, rather than just barking out leader commands all day long.

“Develops Others” means going beyond the managerial functions of everything done on time, to spec and to budget.  We have looked at this earlier. It means putting time into coaching staff and giving them stretch tasks through delegation.  Most people stay functionally at the manager level and never quite level up sufficiently to become a true leader.  Whose fault is that? I would argue it is their boss who has failed them.  The leader’s job is to create other leaders, and every organisation is crying out for good leaders.

“Positively Influences Others” is an all weather skill for leaders. Our grumpy mood, short temper, irritability can bring down the motivation of the team.  Also, speaking ill of other divisions or sections to knit our own team together, a weak leader favourite, makes the team doubt the robustness of the organisation.

“Effectively Communicates” sounds reasonable, except most leaders are not very good at speaking in public.  They do not generate confidence in what they are saying by the unprofessional way in which they are saying it.  The solution is simplicity itself: we need to get the training to master this attribute.

4.  The last category we will cover here is Strategic.

We will deal with just one sub-category “Uses Authority Appropriately”.  We are talking about using our position power for good, rather than self-aggrandisement.  Bossing people around to boost our own fragile ego and having the need for power over others is totally sad.  We are given power to help our people do better - that is the only reason. 

So how was your self-audit?  We now have a framework to place around the term “role model” and we know where we have more work to do.  Always a good thing for a leader.