Do You Lead like a Thermometer or a Thermostat?

by | Nov 27, 2019 | Leadership

Photo by Dan Lefebvre

Would you agree that leaders are responsible for creating the right environment? Sometimes, though, leaders do the opposite. 

I recently participated in a week-long leadership training workshop that was actually really good and we didn’t even have to do any of those cheesy trust exercises. 

One exercise I enjoyed was writing our personal leadership vision statements.  This is a short description of our core values, expectations, and things we value that we want to communicate to our teams.

To prepare, we each wrote some ideas based on the things we learned in class and then discussed them in small groups. 

Then at the end of the week, we’d each give a short speech describing our leadership vision statements to the group as if speaking to our actual employees.

One of the participants in my group said his vision statement would include requiring loyalty from his subordinates since this was his core value. I agreed that loyalty is important especially when leading a team.

But I disagreed on we how to get it. 

I’ve learned you can’t force your way to receiving someone’s loyalty. And you can’t buy it either.

After a lengthy discussion, one of the things our group agreed on was that to get loyalty you have to show it first. But this doesn’t just apply to loyalty.

This applies to all those positive traits we want to see in others.

Think of it this way:

A thermometer shows us the temperature, right? But a thermostat regulates the temperature so when a room gets too hot or too cold it brings it back to level you had pre-set.

Leadership works the same way.

The traits we went to see in the people we work with (or even live with) like loyalty, commitment, integrity, honesty, etc are all things we have to show first. You can’t just demand it, or manipulate your way into having it.

It won’t work in the long-term.

It’s the leader’s responsibility to decide what the temperature will be in that environment. That’s what leaders do.

We initiate.

If the leader doesn’t show these positive traits then it’s unlikely others will do it voluntarily. Like John Maxwell says,

“Everything rises and falls with leadership.”

Does this mean that people will always respond how we want? No way. There’s no predicting or controlling how people will react.

However, as leaders we are responsible for being the catalysts. Leaders are responsible for initiating and modeling the behavior they want to see in others.  

Leaders are the thermostats in the room. 

If you want to be respected, show respect. 

If you want loyalty, be loyal first.

If you want honesty, be honest.

If you want the people around you to have integrity then become a person of integrity.

Waiting for others to act first won’t get you very far.

 So, is your leadership style more of a thermometer or a thermostat?

 

 

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