Born to Lead ?

Now, after looking at these leadership traits, is as good a time as any to discuss “leading by example.”  This one phrase usually appears throughout management texts to the point of qualifying as a cliche.  While leading by example may very well be a cliche, nonetheless it is far from being trite.  In fact it is essential, but as stated it is woefully incomplete.  Whether or not we realize it, we lead by example all the time.  This really should be scary because far too many leaders (and followers, including those who want to be leaders) project a bad example.

Anecdotal reference 3-4:I was in a pentagon conference room to brief some high level members of the Department of the Army.  The senior member of the group, a major general, arrived and promptly lit a cigarette.  In response to a (at that time, fairly recent) Department of Defense edict this and all other conference rooms in the pentagon had “No Smoking” signs prominently posted and all the ash trays had been removed.

Two possible consequences result from those leaders who live a bad example:

1. the leader’s subordinates decide consciously never to follow such an example – and this is the good result.

2. the leader’s subordinates emulate the example of the bad leader – obviously this bad result can occur either because the subordinates do not recognize the improper example, or, even worse, they interpret the bad example as the way to do things.  The tragic consequence of this result is that leaders who fail at leadership are perpetuated and increase in number, much like a cancer.

Correctly stated the precept should be

LEAD BY GOOD EXAMPLE

In fact we should not really limit the precept there:  only one Man on this earth ever led by perfect example, but at the very least we should strive to lead by excellent example. Whenever we take a particular action, we need to ask ourselves just what kind of example am I setting?  Is that example worthy of emulation?  Do I project an excellent example for the traits of honor, integrity, trustworthiness, and selflessness?