My question to you is — Are you a leader ?
You do not have to be a Manager, Director, VP or higher to be a leader. We find leaders in every organization at every level. You can be the leader of your group, or the go-to-guy on a topic, or the consistent dependable person that everyone knows they can count on. I feel that you lead by your actions and examples and not by your knowledge or position.
George Ambler from The Practice of Leadership writes that “Culture is the shadow of the leader” and I agree with him, and I know that at times it is hard to change the culture of a company, especially when the people in senior positions adopt a “do as I say, and not as I do” policy. However I do feel that you can lead by example, no matter what your title is. George writes, “It’s primarily the leaders actions that inspire people to do more, to be more and to learn more.” and again, I want to point out that this can happen at all levels in an organization.
I truly feel that if you want to move ahead in your organization, you need to lead by example, and after reading Georges post this week about Culture as the shadow of the leader, I wanted to reiterate his comments and in particular, take a closer look at what we are doing on a daily basis, and try and determine how that reflects on us and determine how it impacts the folks around us.
