Seeing is believing.
Why is that?
Role modeling is still the most powerful predictor of leadership success or failure.
Role modeling builds a company culture and ensures that the culture grows.
Role modeling is about both presence and absence. It’s about what is there, and what isn’t there.
Role modeling is unstated, unsaid, and often unremarked upon, but its power is acknowledged in the actions people choose.
Role modeling starts in childhood. Children follow their siblings—or don’t—directly due to what they see role modeled before them.
There are some questions to ask to determine if you’re actually role modeling or if you’re just putting on a show for an audience:
Is anyone actually watching?
Do I care what they see?
Can they learn a lesson?
Does my absence speak volumes?
Who will be impacted?
Is this a test?
Could I have done better at that last action?
Do I owe an apology?
Does it (i.e. my words, or deeds) matter to someone else?
Do they care what they are watching?
The difference between putting on a show (which is what the performer, the impresario, and the flim-flam man do) and role modeling (which is what parents, teachers, supervisors, managers, and responsible adults are supposed to do) is that putting on show requires that you answer none of the above questions.
Role modeling requires that you take responsibility and accountability for the answers to each one of the above questions.
