Respected leaders “Walk the talk”

Posted: September 27, 2013 | Categories: Leadership

“What you do speaks so loud I cannot hear what you say”  

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

While watching the Bears game Sunday evening, I saw a play that I will never forget:  It was the 3rd quarter  and the Bears had the football.  They had just had two successive plays where they barely passed the line of scrimmage.  Their once commanding lead had dwindled to three points.  It was 3rd down and the Steelers were coming right at Cutler.  He found a hole and ran for the first down.  The fans were surprised that Jay brought his shoulder down and plunged into the defender knocking him down.  From that point on, the momentum of the game changed, and the Bears won by 17 points.

In his successful execution of the play, Jay exhibited a vital quality of leadership – modeling.   That is exactly what we need to do as leaders.  If I were a fellow lineman watching Jay collide with that guy, I would have thought, “Hey, that our job.  We gotta get with it.  If we lose Jay, we could lose the season”.  As commentator Chris Collinsworth said,  “A move like that gives people a heightened respect in the locker room”

Have you ever worked for someone who asked you do do something, yet they didn’t practice it themselves?  What happens to your respect for that person?  Is usually goes down.

I observed another example of modeling from one of my clients today.  She wanted her staff to do more cold calls in the community.  They were reluctant, and said they didn’t have time.  Cheryl, as the manager, decided to begin cold calling herself.  She made a point to find time in her busy schedule, and yielded good results.  Because she had built such a high level of trust with her team, they responded by digging in and finding time to do their cold calling.  Soon, they were reaping the benefits of what I like to call, “being in there and out there”.

You might be saying to yourself that Cutler’s action was more foolish than heroic.  That can be debated.  What we do know is that leaders we respect are willing to make sacrifices and take calculated risks.  Modeling is powerful.