We’ve all heard the saying “Walk the walk and talk the talk”
and John Maxwell’s famous quote, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the
way, and shows the way.” As leaders, we need to abide by these wise
words everyday. Modeling what you want
to see in your organization or building is critical for the overall growth of
the culture.
Every effective leader has the intentions of modeling of
what they want to see in their organizations.
The problem is, once things get busy, we lose sight of our
intentions. It is too easy to fall back
into our daily norms instead of surging ahead with our original goal of modeling
what we want to see each day from our staff.
Great leaders make sure modeling is a focus on their everyday
practice. They do this in many ways:
Great Leaders Who Model Have a Plan and a Vision
Well of course they do!
They model the plan and vision each day.
Leaders focus their modeling on where they want their organization to
go. Don’t model what isn’t important to
your organization. Streamline your
platform to give your staff a clear picture of what you expect from them.
Great Leaders Who Model are Accountable
Leaders want their staff to be accountable. If we want to see that each day, as leaders,
we have to be accountable too. In any
organization, there are daily situations that arise that create a detour in our
schedules. As a leader, it is important
to avoid these pitfalls. It is important
to hold yourself accountable and set out what you planned to do when the day
started. If we expect our staff members
to handle adversity in that way, then we should model that behavior on our end.
Great Leaders Who Model Take Pride in Educating Themselves
If you want your staff to continue to grow, then as a
leader, you need to do the same. Having
a constant push to get better and learn more ways to help students and staff
starts with pride and want. There are an
abundance of resources available for leaders to grow each day (even if your not
technology savvy or using social media).
Use the resources and share with your staff and others. Others will see your lead and follow.
Great Leaders Who Model Get Out of Their Comfort Zone
We can’t preach to our staff to take chances if we as
leaders are not going to do it ourselves.
Try doing things differently with your meetings or with school
programs. Your staff and students will
notice. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t
work. As leaders, we need to incorporate
more inquiry into our decision making process and ignore the fear of a new
initiative not being perfect at the onset.
Great Leaders Who Model Build Relationships
Building relationships within your organization increases
trust. Staff will be more open to what
is being modeled when trust exists. When
relationships exist, leaders can ask others for assistance with modeling the
initiative and to carry the torch to help others.
Great Leaders Who Model Lean on Others
As a leader, it is important to identify talent. Find the people on your staff that can help
you model your expectations. Using
others to help you model will only make your building stronger. There is a reason staff EdCamp professional
development days are some of the biggest growth opportunities for staff
members. They love learning from each other. Let the power of peer-to-peer self-development
help you help your staff. Let your staff
help you model the great practices and programs in your building.
Great Leaders Who Model Are Visible
Increase your visibility in your organization and you will
see more great practices in your building.
Seems simple enough. This allows you
to see the different practices and share them with the rest of your staff. Visibility allows for conversations and feedback
to take place too. Being visible
throughout your building shows others that you value having a presence in the
building and that it is important to you.
Getting out of office will hopefully encourage your staff to step out of
their rooms and share great practices with staff and build relationships with
students.
Leaders need to set the bar.
We need to show others the way. That’s
part of what makes a strong leader. It
also helps make a strong organization.
Leading by example sets the tone for the culture and climate of your
organization. I believe Albert
Schweitzer said it best, “Example is not the main thing in influencing
others. It is the only thing.”
