In one of my previous articles The Art of Woo, I wrote about a group of Marines making their way through Afghanistan to help protect a group of government official when the team came under heavy gunfire from three sides and one Capt. William D. Swenson who was given a Medal of Honor, ran into the line of fire to bring the injured men to safety during the ambush.
One of the medevac team who came to airlift the injured men out of the area wore one of those GoPro cameras on his helmet and captured the entire rescue live. The captain, with assistance from one of his comrades, brought one of the injured Marines to the helicopter with a gunshot wound to his neck.
They place the injured man down in the helicopter, Captain Swenson, breathing heavily and tired but energize because his adrenaline is running, kissed the injured marine on his forehead and went back into the heart of the gunfire to rescue more people.
Unfortunately, Captain Swenson never got to see that injure marine again. I listen to this, and I said to myself, wow when a leader has a deep-seated love for his team, they will lay their life for that team. That's a perfect example of why leaders lead by example. Cap Swenson display the behavior he expects from his team and in return, his team will never second guess his trust and loyalty.
When leaders say one thing, but do another, they erode trust, a critical element of productive leadership. According to Michael Schrage, serious leaders understand that both by design and default, they’re always leading by example. Some want to “lead from the front” while others prefer“leading from behind.”
Here are a few examples of executives that led by example:
- A Silicon Valley start-up CEO attended his company’s diversity/inclusivity training workshop for the entire day. “Everyone needed to know I took this seriously,” he said.
- A manufacturing executive pointed to her on- and off-site Spanish lessons so she could better communicate with her workforce.
- A senior project manager cited the highly public immediate dismissal of a direct report who had fudged a quality control audit and then lied about it.
- A founder/entrepreneur immediately pointed to promoting the college drop-out into a senior management position over an MBA. He wanted his people to value performance over credentials.
- A managing partner at a global consulting firm makes a point of coming to the office straight from red-eye flights and radiating productive energy.
- At an Asian company, a hard-charging intrapreneur/executive referenced flying to a valued customer in Europe for a week to make sure a novel instrument installation worked as promised.
Leadership is the process by which one individual influences the behaviors, attitudes, and thoughts of others. Although the injured Solider, who was saved by Captain Swenson succumbed to his injuries, Captain Swenson men admired his boldness and dedication to his team, and as a result, his influence and trust within his unit multiply 100 times over.
Leaders set the direction by helping others see what lies ahead, they see everyone’s potential and encourage and inspire those around them to believe in the impossible by their words, actions, and behaviors.