As I drove home from church that particular day, it became clear to me that this question could also be asked of leaders today. “I may be the only leader that another person ever sees. Are my actions worthy of that particular role?” This is a very timely question to be asking. Today, we have CEO’s giving themselves bonuses, buying corporate jets, or taking hunting excursions, while at the same time asking for bailout funds from the federal government and laying off thousands of workers. Are these actions worthy of others to model?
Early in my career, I experienced first hand what can happen when employees model the behavior of their leaders. I had been hired to run a records facility. As I was told during the interview, a big part of my job would entail improving both the storage and access to these records. The interviewers told me that the facility had been losing materials to neglect, theft, and from being misplaced. They wanted to guarantee that these materials would be available for not only themselves, but also others to use.
With this mission in mind, I accepted the position and immediately began my evaluation. After a couple of weeks, I presented the results of my evaluation and the recommendations for improvement to agency management. Believing that I had their full support and backing, I began implementing the recommendations. However, over time it became clear that all was not well. All came to head when I demonstrated the revised records management database.
As part of the reorganization process for the records facility, I had been asked to work closely with department IT personnel in updating the previous records management database to prepare for the 2000 date change. To help with the effort, I solicited staff input. However, nobody volunteered to help. I later learned that my supervisor had been meeting informally with several of my colleagues telling them that he did not like the fact that I was forcing the system's use on him. He told my colleagues that he would never use the revised database.
While not the ideal situation, the contractor and I decided to put together a prototype to demonstrate. We hoped that this would lead to more input. However, on the day of the demonstration, it became clear that many staff were uninterested. Then, at a meeting called to discuss design changes with my supervisor and his staff, tensions elevated as some staff began spewing a tirade of remarks that not only attacked the system, but me as well.
In the days following the meeting, the atmosphere of the office continued to deteriorate. Staff members started refusing to follow the procedures that had been set up to safeguard the records. They told me they did not have to follow these procedures, because my supervisor had issued a new set of policies for the facility in an email. Then my supervisor failed to invite me to staff meetings where decisions were made that systematically dismantled more policies. Letters of support from public users and contractors touting the vast improvement in the facility were of no help. In the end, my colleagues treated both the records safe guards and me as irrelevant.
While this episode in my life was a very trying time, it also taught me a valuable lesson. I learned that a leader has great influence on the actions and attitudes of those around him/her. With this in mind, they need to model those types of behaviors that set a good example and are the behaviors that they would want shown to them. Leaders must also ask themselves, would these actions make my loved ones proud of me? Going one step further, maybe they should also ask themselves, would my actions be well received in the Kingdom of God.