PhotoA recent post “Developing future leaders” by Mitch McCrimmon provides and interesting perspective on the importance of leading by example as follows…
“Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela had a one-off leadership impact on their respective governments without being members of those governments and having no authority within them. Similarly, when knowledge workers promote new products to management, they have a one-off leadership impact with no managerial authority over their bosses.
Leading by example is not restricted to those in managerial roles. Employees can show leadership by example to their colleagues. And companies can show leadership by example with innovative products despite having no managerial authority over their markets… Pure leadership means showing the way for others, either by example or by explicitly promoting a new direction.”
We all intuitively know that leading by example is the most powerful form of leadership, but ironically it’s often the most overlooked. As Mahatma Gandhi once said “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” The insight from Mitch, is that leading by example is something that we can all do, no matter our role, no matter our position. We can all make the choice and take responsibility to be the change we want to see. We can all take initiative, we can all make the decision to “show the way for others”.
- Are you leading by example?
- Have you chosen to be the change?
- Have you chosen to show the way?
Technorati Tags: Leadership, Example, Leader, Practice, Management, Vision, Change
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Completely agree.
In my view, leadership is all about influence, not about role/position.
As an individual, everything we do has an influence on our superiors, peers and those that work for us.
For most of us, it is what we do that makes us great leaders, not what what we say – The power of leading by example!
In the cases of Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, whilst their actions have had a profound influence, each of them also had the ability to articulate in words, the most powerful messages that also had a profound influence.
The standards they set are hard to live up to, but we can all learn from their example.
Great post! I agree with Andrew, it’s what we do that makes us great leaders, and these leaders were able to both “say” and “do” great things.
Martha.
Wow – powerful stuff here: You must be the change you wish to see in the world. I couldn’t agree more. It’s about being an inspiration to others. Rallying for a cause. Celebrating both failures and successes. Getting out of the way so people can do, think, act and behave like you inspire them to do.
Thanks for the refreshing perspective on what’s really important in leadership.
“Employees can show leadership by example to their colleagues” YES!
I am trying to teach my veterans about the importance of being a role model, as the new employees follow in the footsteps of the old ones.
There is a lot of leaders on the floor with no business title, leadership is influence and not position.
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