Emulation

Have you ever noticed how a business will take on the personality of its leader? Another example is when a leader truly takes ownership over an initiative and his or her staff members follow suit. I see examples of this everyday in our business. What is important to the leader of any given piece of our business is also important to those that report to the leader. Is it due to the anticipation of inspection of results or efforts? Maybe in some cases this applies, but in most it is due to the elevation of the level of passion for a particular piece of the business that the leader has embraced that causes the increase in revenue, income, activity, etc.

Understanding this can give a leader an advantage when dealing with their teams. You can increase the overall effectiveness of your people by not only keeping your message consistent but by the manner in which you deliver the message. Even if you are having a bad day, you need to deflect or filter your inner frustrations from those that you lead so you can keep the environment positive and productive. All too often leaders fail in this regard. An example of this would be if traffic was bad on the way into the office and the leader gets upset, lets this spillover into the workplace and allows it to set the tone for the entire day. Be cognizant of your mind set, body language and verbal communication to your team. This is especially true early in the workday. Sometimes leaders derail their operation without even realizing it. Being keenly aware of the completeness of the impact you can have on your people will elevate your leadership skill set.

Always remember that people emulate their leaders. This can be great if the leader is confident, capable and always able to deliver the right message at the right time.

Start your day tomorrow in a unique way that would be completely out of character. What kind of impact did that have on the rest of the work day? Did anyone else on your team step outside of the norm? People emulate their leaders....