Monkey See, Monkey Do? Team Member See? Team Member Do!!!

Originally shared in A Daily Dose Of Leadership on June 30, 2020.

Ok… Think back to when you were a kid. What did you see the people you admired most doing that you weren’t allowed to do? Maybe you were too young, maybe “it was bad for you”, or maybe it was just something that same person had told you that you weren’t allowed to do…

How did that usually end up? For me, it typically only made me work that much harder to do that exact thing that I was told I shouldn’t be doing because that person I wanted to emulate was doing it! I was quite frequently very successful in accomplishing that forbidden thing… To save a little face here, I won’t go into any of the specifics. But I’m sure your imagination can do its own work. And I’m also sure I’m not alone!

Now fast forward to your current leadership responsibility. How often have you been in situations where you’ve either wanted to, or absolutely had to, do something that the people on the team you lead couldn’t or shouldn’t be doing? Regardless of the reason, that’s a tough scenario to explain. And it doesn’t just apply to the things we actually do; it’s just as applicable for the things we’re perceived as having done.

If we want to build genuine trust with each of our team members, the kind we looked at through the last several blogs, we can’t just talk the talk… We have to be very intentional on a daily basis about walking a walk that provides a visible example that our team members can follow if we ever hope to develop a strong organizational culture that builds trust with each and every person that deals with our company on any level!

I was recently reminded of a story that one of my mentors told me literally thousands of time, “Choose the harder right over the easier wrong.” We’ll take a look at why this can be challenging for a leader, but we’ll also look at why there’s no other option if we want to build (or even maintain) our organizational culture on a foundation that sustains A Cycle for Success!