The Power of Modeling the Way

You don’t teach what you don’t do. It’s a difficult truth all leaders either wrestle with or pretend to ignore.

For me it’s getting to the office on time. I’m not 15 minutes late, just 5 to 10 minutes. Not a big deal right? (Some of you are frowning right now, I can feel it.) True confession time: I’ve wrestled with on time arrival for years after I learned the wrong lessons about timeliness in high school.

In our school if you were late to a class three times, it was an unexcused absence. If you had three unexcused absences, you were kicked out of class. I was late a lot and racked up an impressive number of unexcused absences in my high school career. In fact, one quarter I had 15 unexcused absences – three for each of my five classes and, rather than getting kicked out, I got straight A’s.

To be fair to my teachers, the grades were earned. I never skipped class. I participated in discussions, studied hard and did well on tests. I just had a problem sitting around doing nothing with everyone else who was doing nothing, waiting for the teacher to do a version of the Ferris Bueller roll-call. It just seemed simpler to show up a few minutes late, get a de facto “present and accounted for” and we could all get started. And I got away with it.

Or at least I thought I did.

Fast forward to my first real corporate job after college. My supervisor and manager were both from the “five minutes early is late” school of meeting etiquette. They were early to our weekly staff meetings and expected everyone else to be early too.

I was juggling a lot of projects with tight deadlines so I would work right up to meeting time, trying to get more done. Something would always come up. An important call would run long or a vendor would show up unannounced at 5 minutes to meeting time and I would, once again, arrive at 10:03 or 10:05 for a 10:00 meeting.

I thought it was OK since I worked overtime nearly every day and I was getting great results. My managers saw it differently and promptly passed me over for promotion.

And they didn’t even tell me about it! I had to figure it out on my own.

Once I did, I began the very difficult process of changing my ways. It wasn’t until I started looking at my arrival time from their perspective instead of my own that I really got it.

Fast forward again to today. I’m an executive who puts in way more hours than my paycheck says I do. I’m on time for meetings, I work hard to meet goals and produce quality work our team can be proud to put our names on. But I still have a problem getting to the office on time.

So guess what I don’t do? I don’t enforce an on-time arrival policy, even though I think it’s important. I have some employees who come in a little late but leave the second the clock strikes 5:00.

If they were extra-milers, it wouldn’t be an issue, but as it is, they’re stealing a little bit from the company every day. To be fair to myself, I make sure they work hard, achieve goals and meet deadlines. It’s just that I don’t teach what I don’t do. Most likely, neither do you.

The power of modeling the way comes from the fact that people do what they see, not what they hear. And you will teach and hold people accountable for what you do. Conversely, you’ll undermine your own authority by letting some things slide in others because you’re not doing them yourself.

What John Maxwell says is true, “The hardest person to lead is you.”

I’m committing right now to getting to the office on time so, with integrity, I can lead my team members to do the same. I encourage you to take a moment to wrestle with one of your shortcomings and then join me by tackling it.

As John Maxwell also says, “A leader knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.”

About the Author

Karl J. Newman is a Featured Writer for the John Maxwell Team Blog.

Karl is an executive leader and influential communicator who develops strategies for growth and effective solutions to business and organizational challenges. He is President & CEO of several successful companies and founder of Envision Leadership, LLC. Karl uses his real-world experience to help leaders maximize personal, team and organizational performance.

As a certified John Maxwell leadership speaker, trainer and coach, Karl brings you more than theory and concepts. He brings you customized real-world solutions you can turn into results – both in your own life and across your organization.

Contact Karl at : www.johnmaxwellgroup.com/karlnewman