Lead by Example

The state of being a leader is not a title that is given to someone, it is earned by leading by example. Leadership is the position that one is in to influence others to act courageously and confidently by first demonstrating how this is done. A leader is assessed with responsibilities that challenges the self-efficacy of themselves and their team members alike during group projects. Becoming a leader who learns to understand how to provide direction is fundamental in achieving the task at hand. These challenges range from guiding the team to pivot their thinking, acknowledging team members’ achievements, and utilizing strategies that further develop leadership skills. 

Individual thinking limits one’s ability to expand their point of view and interests. As a leader, it is important to recognize how to accommodate the client by showing team members how to leave their original mind state and enter into territories that are unfamiliar to them. With this in mind, it is crucial to approach the team with an understanding of the client project and determine what each member’s individual capabilities are. First, one must demonstrate what it looks like to pivot one’s own thinking to teach the members how to unlock their own heuristic approaches to learning. According to Pink (2009), “functional fixedness” is described as a heuristic approach, “breaking from the path to discover a novel strategy” (p. 41). When someone is willing to supply an educated guess to the group, they may have to step out of their comfort zone to do so. The role of the leader is to encourage and support these opportunities without arrogance or belittling the person, because they might be willing to share an idea or experience that is unfamiliar with the rest of the team if they feel supported. By creating a space that feels “safe,” more creativity will be able to flow openly. Pink paraphrases a quote by a man by the name of Gary Hamel who is a management consultant who stated, ‘“Business leaders,’ he says, ‘must find ways to infuse mundane business activities with deeper, soul-stirring ideals, such as honor, truth, love, justice, and beauty.’” Traditional top-down leaders may not want to embrace these emotions because they fear being too vulnerable. “Humanize what people say and you may well humanize what they do” (Pink, 2009, p.137). By showing their own humbleness or humanity, leaders then become more relatable which opens up the lines of communications. Within the context of business activity, effective communication is extremely important and is the foundation for building trust. When team members feel like they can relate as humans acting on a particular activity which involves humanistic ideals, it makes them buy into the client’s goals with more motivation.  A leader can take hold of these ideals and embrace them personally as a way to demonstrate a sense of free-will to act accordingly. It is a basic human desire to help others, and by “humanizing” the project, the leader is able to touch the team member’s humanistic sense of wanting to help in a sincere and idealistic fashion. People often do nothing when they feel fear. A leader is able to alleviate the team’s sense of fear towards the project by being empathetic and compassionate towards the members’ feelings. This creates the team’s confidence to contribute more willingly. Team members who feel supported and humanized themselves will translate these feelings towards their desired outputs for the project to succeed.

Because motivation is difficult to inherit, leaders acknowledge teammates to congratulate their hard work in hopes that it will continue to push them towards the end goal. My point of view regarding the concept of acknowledging achievements as a motivator is it is a great idea. I truly believe that this is an incredible way to continue motivating the team. This creates a healthy team environment where all the members feel good about the work they put in to achieve this acknowledgement. This will urge the team to continue putting forth the effort to achieve more acknowledgments. Acknowledgments make people feel good, it makes them realize that the work they are doing is being noticed by someone. This creates a sense of responsibility that they otherwise may not have had. It will also give them a good feeling and people that feel good tend to work better. The time my achievements were acknowledged while I was on a team was when I was playing hockey in high school. We were facing a team that was better than us. I started the game off skating as hard as I could and I could hear my coach say, “Now that’s how you skate Wehe, why don’t you all skate that hard?” This made me feel acknowledged and ultimately led me to try really hard the rest of the game, and this turned into a leadership position as I felt obligated to keep up the intensity. The effect on my motivation was life changing. Since I felt a need to lead by example, after that moment, I understood that by giving it my all on a team, it led to everyone else’s’ improvement. I was motivated to continue living up to that acknowledgment. After that game, I knew that I could influence others with a positive attitude. As a leader of the team for this semester, I can recognize and acknowledge achievements by giving my team a sense of the bigger picture. I will explain to my team why the task is important. By incorporating the larger purpose into the framework for what we are actually doing, it gives the team a sense of responsibility that what we are doing will ultimately affect the client’s mission. I plan to do this by asking open-ended questions so that each team member will be able to personally “own” the mission and understand the goals so they can begin to use their own process for developing the strategies needed. I can also acknowledge that some of the tasks we are doing are boring. This gives my team a sense of empathy from a leader’s perspective. I want to give my team this perspective because we are going through this together and acknowledging that everything we are doing is together. I plan to lead by example and to continually point out which team members are contributing by praising them personally and acknowledging them in front of the rest of the team. I will allow people to self-select for different tasks, rather than having them assigned by me. Pink states, “Consider non-tangible rewards. Praise and positive feedback are much less corrosive than cash and trophies” (Pink, 2009, p. 65). As a leader, it is incredibly important to communicate when team members have worked hard to achieve a milestone. I will personally thank them for their hard work and tell them how much it meant to the client as this will give them a sense of praise and positive feedback that will in turn make them satisfied with their personal efforts. I will also put out the various outcomes we hope to achieve and then offer opportunities to brainstorm and then ultimately do the work. I will offer to take some of the mundane tasks. Leaders who are willing to put themselves out there and hold themselves accountable to the group will achieve better results from each individual team member because they will build up their faith in me as a leader as well as themselves.

A leader should utilize three strategies that Pink mentions to further develop their skills and awaken their motivation. Just Say No-With A List is the first strategy that should be considered and it introduces a man by the name of Tom Peters who is another management guru who stated, “What you decide not to do is probably more important than what you decide to do” (Pink, 2009, p.158). A leader is easily distracted by the steps it takes to actually complete the project and lists out the “to-do’s” without even thinking about what not to do. The value of listing out what not to do is the awareness it brings. The list provides direction of what to avoid for obvious reasons. They are “time-wasting distractions, and useless burdens that stand in your way” (Pink, 2009, p.158). By taking the time to list these distractions on paper, it brings awareness and gives the leader more tools to use when working. The second strategy that should be used is called Move Five Steps Closer To Mastery. This strategy encompasses the importance of the steps it takes to become a master at something. A leader should be focusing on four key areas within this strategy: “deliberate practice, repeating tasks, focus on areas of weakness, prepare for the process to be physically and mentally draining”. (Pink, 2009, p. 158). These things should be constantly adhered to and considered when a leader is running a project and guiding a team towards an end goal. It creates the path towards success and should be heavily considered by the leader and the team members. The third strategy that will develop increased leadership skills is Create Your Own Motivational Poster. This is exactly what it sounds like and can have a very strong effect towards personal and team motivation. “Motivation is deeply personal and only you know what words or images will resonate with you”. (Pink, 2009, p.160). The posters can be handed out to the team members and the leader can advise them to put them somewhere noticeable so they will always be reminded of why they are a part of the team and the project. To hold each other accountable, the leader can start off the next meeting by telling the group where he or she keeps the poster and how it reminded him or her to do something great. The leader should then ask for input from the team members to contribute how and where the poster affected each of them. Sharing personal, motivating stories like these can build mutual respect and trust.

    The process of designing and leading a team project is daunting and takes a lot of personal effort. Guiding team members to pivot their thinking and performance, acknowledging their achievements along the way, and utilizing strategies that further develop leadership skills are all fundamental aspects of what makes a good leader. As a leader continues to grow, they must be aware that they lead by example, and that their actions are a direct impact of the efficacy of the team’s work.

References

Pink, D. H. (2009). Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. New York: Riverhead Books.