Category: business

Lead by example: to lead change, leaders must change from within

We’ve all heard the phrase: “Lead by example.” In battle, the troops must see the Army Officer in front of them, leading them boldly towards their objective. The leader exemplifies courage, selfless service, and inspires trust in his followers.

Example-setting is the only way a leader will get his followers to buy into his plan. Albert Schweitzer said: “Example isn’t the main thing in leadership – it is the only thing.”

Most people are visual learners, not verbal learners. Good communication makes the vision clear, and good modeling makes it come alive.

A leader must want his followers to model the desired behavior. How do you do that? How, as a leader, do you get your followers to exhibit the you want to see? The answer is simple: be a leader, not a naysayer. Leaders must lead themselves first.

To do this a leader, a manager, supervisor, team leader – whoever aspires to lead – must have self-awareness. They must know their weaknesses and their capabilities before barking out orders. But building awareness about one’s habits of thought, emotions, hopes, and behavior is a task. Leaders must know what makes them tick, their beliefs, their priorities, their aspirations, values and fears (Boaz and Fox, 2014)

Most leaders want status, but not the responsibility. Are they at that level to get more pay and more status, or to get themselves and others to buy into the organization’s mission, vision and goals?

We have a biblical example of this in Kings II Chapters 22 through 23. King Josiah ruled Judea for 31 years. When he was 18 years old, he was in the midst of a restoration project of the temple of God, where a scroll of the book of the law was found by the high priest and was given to the royal secretary to be read to King Josiah. When the king heard the words of the law, he immediately tore his robe. In the Old Testament, this was a sign of repentance, remorse, and despair. Josiah was known as a very righteous king, yet through the word of God, he repented and became aware of his own sins towards God. Here you see how the king Josiah (leader) made a change within himself (self-awareness). His internal reform brought about the internal reform of his people, which led to the restoration of God‘s covenant throughout Judea.

How inner awareness affects the leader’s outer change

People do as they see, so the leaders’ actions speak louder than words. As mentioned previously, the example isn’t the main thing – it is the only thing. Organizations that want to implement new strategies create new policies and procedures. But the new processes will fall short if the leader does not exemplify the desired change. In their research, Boaz and Fox indicate that new strategies often fall short because of a failure to inspire the “underlying mindsets and capabilities of the people who will execute [them].”

Research indicates that if the leader doesn’t role model change and maintains the status quo, the people on the ground will maintain that same motivation. (Boaz and Fox, 2014). In my Biblical example, the people saw their King change from within. All of his actions illuminated his internal change, and this motivated the people to also change and move toward transformation.

Learning to lead means cultivating awareness of self. You must be aware of your inner thoughts, character and the values that you hold firm to, regardless of the situation. Self-awareness requires you to know what makes you tick – your inner desires, your strengths and weaknesses, the interests you had as a child, and what motivates and inspires you as an adult. But in this day and age, having inner awareness of one’s self is not easy. Many voices out there harbor confusion, deception, fear, but a few voices have vision and purpose. Nevertheless, to lead others, one must lead one’s own self.

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” ―Aristotle

If you model the behavior you want everyone in your organization to exhibit, then change will happen without resistance. In a research study, seasoned executives with 15 or more years of experience were asked to name the critical leadership competency for successful change efforts. The answers were communication, collaboration, and commitment.


In the area of communication, the leaders explained that followers must know the “what” and the “why” of the change and understand how these align with the organization’s values. In the area of collaboration, successful leaders encourage people to work together across boundaries with other teams or departments to achieve a common goal. In the area of commitment, leaders aligned their own beliefs and behaviors to support change.

The successful leaders also had to step out of their comfort zone and not appear to be resistant or inflexible. The successful leaders embraced change by devoting time and effort to it. Those who were resistant to and negative about change were unsuccessful in implementing change in their organizations (Center for Creative Leadership, 2020).
The bottom line is that people model the behavior of their leaders. Followers (employees, team) will do what they see their leader do. General Colin Powell said it best: “You can issue all the memos and give all the motivational speeches you want, but if the rest of the people in your organization don’t see you putting forth your very best effort every single day, they won’t either.” Be an example of the change you want to see.


Derrick Darden, Ph.D. (Entrepreneur Apex)

Partner Entrepreneur Coach

Blogsites: dcdardentalks.com & tripledfoundation.com

Different Working Cultures in the USA, United Kingdom, and Australia

 

Starting a new job is always daunting, so it helps to have some idea what to expect—especially if you’re working abroad. You may be confident in your ability to do the work, but what about fitting into a foreign workplace? Learning the language is crucial, of course, but it’s only part of the picture. Countries such as the UK, the USA, and Australia all speak English . . . but they’re so different in other ways that they frequently baffle each other. Obviously, no two workplaces—let alone two individual human beings—are the same. Not all Americans are workaholics and not all Brits are shy about telling you what they think. That said, if you’re thinking of working in one of those three countries, here are some cultural differences to keep in mind . . .

If your British boss says “By the way, perhaps you could make these changes?” then you’d better make them. If they call something “a bit disappointing,” you should be very concerned. Understatement can be confusing and frustrating to people from cultures that prefer to communicate more directly. But from the British perspective, telling someone bluntly what you want them to do feels arrogant and aggressive—they’d rather leave room for you to pretend it was your idea all along.

In an Australian workplace, you probably won’t have much trouble figuring out what your colleagues actually mean. Communication is usually direct, even blunt . . . once you get to the point. Australians are often uncomfortable with overt displays of authority, and have their own ways of avoiding the possibility of being seen as too pushy. It’s common to spend a good fifteen minutes at the start of a meeting talking about anything other than work. You’ll also encounter a lot of slang and plenty of swearing.

You don’t have to do much reading between the lines in a USA setting either—direct questions and literal statements are the norm, and there’s no lingering on other topics before getting down to business. But if something goes wrong, Americans are less likely to be blunt about it—they’ll explain the problem, but they’ll try to “wrap” it in positives too. The focus on optimistic, upbeat communication is also key to how Americans expect you to talk about yourself.

Despite their other differences, both Britons and Australians are uneasy about self-promotion. Not so in the USA, where making sure your accomplishments are recognized is a necessary skill.

Office Romances

Each country’s attitude towards love in the workplace varies, with the USA the most strait-laced, Australia the most easygoing, and the UK somewhere in between. One-third of American businesses have policies prohibiting romances between team members, and one in ten won’t even tolerate relationships between workers from different departments. Such rules are rare (even, arguably, illegal) in the UK and Australia, though some UK workplaces will expect you to disclose relationships to a manager. In Australia, so long as it doesn’t interfere with your work, you should be fine.

Dress Codes

Norms in the UK and USA are fairly similar, at least as far as differences in climate allow. Some industries, such as law and banking, are more formal, with suits, tailored garments, and somber colors still the norm. In more creative industries there’s an increasing trend towards more casual wear. You should still probably dress conservatively at your interview and on your first day to be on the safe side, but don’t be surprised to see t-shirts, jeans, and sneakers when you get there.

You should err on the side of caution to begin with in Australia too—but you’ll rarely be expected to wear a tie or a suit jacket. And when small, creative workplaces get casual, they sometimes get very casual—you may even see bare feet!

Work/Life Balance

Given their reputation for being tightly wound, it may be surprising that it’s the British who are most likely to go home on time and least likely to complain if you’re late. They also have the longest holidays and the most paid sick leave (although less of both than many neighboring European countries.) But perhaps it’s partly down to their long commutes: the average Briton spends 54 minutes getting to work each morning—it’s just 29 minutes for Australians and 23 for Americans. Meanwhile, Australia may be famous for being “laid-back,” but lateness is frowned upon, as is rushing out the door as soon as your shift is technically over.

Of the three, the USA expects the longest working hours, and there’s no legal requirement for employers to provide any paid time off or sick leave, although private sector workers do receive an average of 15 days off.

Whether you consider America’s “very hardworking” self-image accurate will depend on where you come from—plenty of nations work longer hours, including South Korea, Greece, and Russia! The payoff is the potential for higher earnings—an American senior manager can earn almost twice what an equivalent worker in the UK can expect.

Kaplan International

Blogsite: dcdardentalks.com

Distract the Distractive Critic in the workplace

  • Aikido Style

One of the most frustrating experiences at work is having a boss or coworker who gives negative critical comment regarding your work. When there is a consistent barrage of negative criticism, it negatively impacts your self-esteem, feelings, and performance of your day-to-day task. As a matter of fact, it is somewhat common for those that are placed under daily destructive criticism to encounter clinical depression.

The non-necessities: Overlooking his or her comments, moving your desks, and/or expressing your displeasure; are all the non-necessities.

Another strategy that is very effective is similar to the aikido expert who makes use of the power of an opponent and adopts the reverse leverage to conquer him.

When you are being criticized by the distractive critic,rather than attempting to stop him from criticizing you, try to encourage him todo so productively.��

There was a story told by a well-known commercial interior designer. The story was concerning his coworker who usually gives him negative feedback regarding the way the static displays are presented in the office showroom.  His co-worker criticizes, that the colors schemes are poorly combined, in other cases, the layouts of furniture and wall decoration look crowded, and it appears lousy.  So the criticized interior designer thought about his goals and how the critic (co-worker) should proceed to criticize his work in a productive manner.   

The next time the coworker began with the critical comments, he responded with the question, “How can he get it done better?”

This is a response that accurately indicates how criticism communication can be effectively diminished to a sentence. This is what usually happens. If negative criticism tells you, “you are winning.” Now, on the flip side, if the response is: “I do not have an idea,” what you should do is to clarify, “I’m trying my best”. Continue to say “I would be grateful if you do not tell me your criticism anymore unless it’s productive criticism.”  This implies to the coworker not to criticize you, but instead, you are only requesting the manner at which you are being criticized.  It must be productive and not destructive!!! If this doesn’t work, set up a meeting with your immediate supervisor.

In dealing with the boss, use a different strategy, make arequest from your boss to give you some time, so he can productively assess youin your areas of responsibilities.  Iremember the Mayor of New York City, Mayor Koch, he used to ask hisconstituents, “How am I doing?” The framework for your boss should be as such,“How am I doing?” Let him know the area you want him to improve in, and let himtell you how to improve them. Lay emphasis on the fact that you want to be agood employee that adds value to the organization.  If this meeting is successful, express yourappreciation and let him feel how much you benefited from his attention, andtry to get some search sessions consistently, irrespective of how inconsistent,and never forget to execute any valid criticism he poses. Actually, you’ve justtaught your boss how the power of positive criticism can be obtained. This is awin-win case!  Weisinger, H/ Triple D

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