January 9, 2023

“The behavior you exhibit as a leader, becomes the acceptable behavior of your followers and those you interact with.” - Ed Hendricks

Wow isn’t this so true. How many of us have worked with bosses, coaches, supervisors, etc. who said one thing, but acted in a totally different way? I know I have. It reminds me of that old saying, “Do as I say, not as I do.” This is a great way to cop out of your responsibilities as a leader. On the flip side, when we, as leaders, take these words to heart, it is amazing to see the commitment we start to gain for our team members. We are all in charge of the type of team/organization we want to create. Do we want to create a team that is complacent or a team that is committed? I know my answer is that I want a team that is not only committed to one another, but to me as the leader as well. As soon as you get the title of “leader,” you gain an enormous amount of power and responsibility. The second that you walk into your job, school, practice, all eyes are on you. Your team is watching you to see what your words, tone, and body language are going to tell them about the upcoming day. If you come in with body language dejected, words and tones all being negative, how do you think your team is going to respond? Not great, not great at all. Now I’m not saying that you always have to be Polly Positive all of the time, but how you carry yourself will show you how your team is going to interact the rest of the day. We, as leaders, should never try to hold our team members to a standard that we too can’t rise to. According to a recent Gallup poll, leaders account for “at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units.” This means that we, as leaders, have a direct impact on how engaged our team members are. If we show them that we are engaged with the new training the company has brought in, or we are on board (even though we may not fully agree) with the new direction the team is going, our own team members will follow suit. How leaders act and interact with people everyday is always being consumed by their followers, so they know when leaders are being true and honest. There is a simple solution to starting the process of gaining commitment from your team members. It is to act how you want them to act. You set the example for culture, engagement, effort. When you set this standard, your team will follow, you are the one setting the tone for your team. --Ed Hendricks