Leadership by Example: How to Ignite this Quality in Your Life and Work

Throughout the world, it is clear that our notions about LEADERSHIP are being turned upside down, questioned, revitalized and changed before our eyes. Like all renewal, the process may seem chaotic for some – but what is emerging has fresh fingerprints on it. As I’ve watched and participated in my own ways, I’ve often thought of the opening line in a treasured old, tattered book, written over fifty years ago. I found it by-chance in a hidden corner of a used bookstore. I’ve wondered if its message carries a modern day truth for all of us. It reads…

 “[William Makepeace] Thackeray once said that the world is a looking
glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face.”
Take a Look at Yourself by John Homer Miller

What is this reflection asking of you and me?  Something significant! The reflection of our faces in the mirror of the world is a reminder that the future, collectively, rests in our hands. We are here at this time for a purpose – and it is hard to deny that we are the ones who will create the next chapter in history. A daunting, yet exciting reality and opportunity, yes?

 There are some compelling reasons for us to be responding to our reflection in the mirror by re-evaluating our notions of LEADERSHIP as we have known it: Times have changed. Things are different. Our “systems” are broken. The stakes are very HIGH – and our global and domestic families are looking to us for a renewed kind of leadership, worthy of solving our most pressing problems for the good of all.

The stereotype of the traditional “leader” we have known has been a person seen with authority and privilege – even if in reality, we discover that leadership may be just a little bigger cubicle and a lot of hard and rewarding work. However, today the landscape of leadership touches each of us, at all levels of society. Leadership is as local as any of us sitting at our desks or collaborating in an online meeting or via social media or working in our communities – and as global, connected, and far-reaching as time, distance, and technology can take us. In an instant, it stretches across cultures and many dimensions of difference. We all are part of an emerging diverse, global leadership corps with opportunities every day to influence something or someone. Because of this reality, there isn’t the option we once had to just “opt-out” and leave it to others. As an example, I’ve heard many groups that say they don’t want to rely on a single leader’s authority. Yet, collectively, they are leading one another – and like other bold pioneers across the world, they are influencing change on many fronts far beyond what anyone could imagine. In his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela described the next steps for us as we continue to open the way:

 “…For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a
way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.
The true test of our devotion to freedom is just
beginning …With freedom come responsibilities.” by Nelson Mandela

What does it take to LEAD by Example?

There has been a looming set of questions being asked by many groups, “What’s your message?” What do you want?” I believe strongly that the fastest way to calm these questions will come from leadership by example. Two world renowned leaders, present and past,  serve as sources of timeless wisdom to prove this belief: Frances Hesselbein and Gandhi. Together, they make a compelling case that “leadership by example” is the answer. Each leader’s story below demonstrates the power of this quality as a tool of influence, while teaching us how we can apply it to our lives and work.

Frances Hesselbein is founding president and CEO of The Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute (formerly the Peter F. Drucker Foundation). He is an exemplary “leader by example.” Among Frances’ long and remarkable list of leadership contributions and achievements, she is a Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient, the highest civilian honor in the United States of America for her pioneering work on behalf of the Girls Scouts, women, diversity, and volunteerism. Frances has been my mentor, teacher, and friend for many years. She taught me many valuable lessons. Two stand out related to our discussion on leadership by example:

• Frances never deviates from her core values.
  I was asked to describe her one time: Frances is a beacon of leadership excellence. Watching her is a lesson in how to BE a leader. Meeting her is an experience you never forget. Futurist, Joel Barker, my long-time colleague, illuminated her qualities when he said, “Frances taught me how important influence – not power – is in changing the world for the better.”

• Frances defines the leader’s role and lives it.
  She writes: “The leader of the future will not be the leader who has learned lessons of how to do it… The leader for today and the future will be focused on how to be – how to develop quality, character, mind-set, values, principles, and courage.”

Mohandas Gandhi forever whispers to us across decades, by his example, providing the ultimate self-assessment and call-to-action for our time. For me, it started many years ago when I read a story about Gandhi. He had a practice of not speaking one day a week. On one of these days, he was traveling by train. When the train stopped at a midway station, a journalist came up to the window yelling, what message do you have for me to take back to my people? Gandhi, staying true to his practice, wrote five words on a slip of paper and put it up in the window for the journalist to see. It read, “My life is my message.”  In the years since, it has become a kind of silent, perpetual mantra for me inside – I have multiple places in my office and home where I’ve placed his message in different forms. It is always asking how my behavior and actions serve as an example for others.

A Send-Off Message for You:

This seems most important at this International Leadership Blogathon, yes? This seems especially true when the send-off is defined as a celebratory demonstration of good will and enthusiasm for the beginning of a new venture. Leadership by example is perhaps our most powerful tool in putting what we are learning here from one another into action. Imagine how different the world would be if one-by-one, we would each reflect all that we wish for in how we think, behave, interact, and operate in our lives and work. At the end of my book, Putting Our Differences to Work, I quote another passage from John Homer Miller that sums it up:

 “You want [a better organization,] a better world? What you need to help [make your organization better] or to make the world better is not more education of your intellect. What you need is something spiritual and ethical added to your knowledge. You need educated emotions and a dedicated heart.”

May your life be the reflection of your leadership message.

SHARE YOUR PERSPECTIVE BELOW…
What bit of wisdom has MOST influenced your leadership?
What other thoughts and advice do you have to share with others?

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