Your team hears what matters to you. It also sees what you do when things get busy, a mistake comes to light or a result is under pressure. What example do you set at those moments?
You want employees to raise problems early. Better an incomplete account in time than a polished account when it is too late. You have made that clear in the team meeting.
A week later, someone tells you that a project is falling behind. You react immediately. How could this happen? Why was it not clear sooner? You interrupt their account and start offering solutions yourself.
Your intention was to help quickly. But what has your employee experienced in this moment? And how much room will there be next time to approach you before everything is under control?
Modelling success, one of the four fundamental tasks of leadership, starts with moments like these. What you do gives meaning to the words you use.
What are you actually leading the way in?
The phrase “modelling success” can sound uncomfortable. As if you constantly have to prove how successful you are. As if you must never doubt yourself, make a mistake or need help.
This task asks you to take visible responsibility for the movement the organisation needs. Your own actions show how you are working towards it. That includes trying things, reflecting and adjusting.
It starts with asking what success means in your context. Reliable service? Better cooperation between departments? A product that truly helps customers? Which outcomes matter, and what way of working goes with them?
Without that clarity, success is easily defined by whatever attracts the most attention: the highest revenue, the quickest solution or the person who is always available. Even when you say something different matters on paper.
The exceptions tell their own story
Suppose your management team has agreed that departments should cooperate more effectively. One manager delivers excellent results but regularly passes difficult work to colleagues. You notice and decide to leave it for now. Those results are very welcome.
What do the other managers learn from this? Perhaps that cooperation matters as long as it does not interfere with their own figures. The exception then carries more meaning than the agreement.
The same thing can happen when you encourage rest and focus but mainly praise employees for working through the weekend. Or when you ask for independence and then conduct every important client conversation yourself.
You do not have to be perfectly consistent at every moment. Sometimes interests conflict and an exception is needed. Make your reasoning visible: why is this exception necessary, and what are its consequences? Otherwise people have to guess which agreement actually applies.
Show how you deal with a mistake
Setting an example becomes interesting when your own actions are part of the problem. You promised something that turns out to be unrealistic. You interrupted someone before understanding their point. Or you held on to a decision longer than was helpful for the work.
At that moment, you can explain the circumstances at length. You can also begin by acknowledging your part. “I made this commitment without checking capacity properly. That has left you with a schedule that does not work. I will come back today with the changes we need to make.”
You show that taking responsibility goes beyond admitting that something went wrong. You also make clear what you will do to put it right.
Your openness is of little help to your team if it then requires them to reassure you. You can acknowledge your mistake without describing at length how bad you feel about it. That keeps the focus on the work and on what others need from you.
Success has consequences for the whole
This task involves understanding success within its wider context. In practical terms: what are the consequences of the result you are pursuing for people, the organisation and its surroundings?
A department can meet its targets by shifting costs or problems to another department. A project can be delivered on time because the same people repeatedly exceed their limits. The outcome looks good in one place while the cost is borne elsewhere.
As a leader, you need to consider that broader picture. What are we building through the way we perform today? What are we depleting? Can we sustain this, and does it fit what the organisation stands for?
Sometimes leading the way means setting a boundary around an attractive assignment. Or discussing a result that falls short of expectations without hiding it or simply passing the pressure on.
You can ask others to follow
Setting an example is different from hoping that others will automatically adopt it. Leadership also involves naming the desired direction and inviting people, and where necessary holding them accountable, to move with you.
Do you want managers to discuss tensions directly with one another? Have such a conversation yourself, then make your expectations concrete. Which subjects belong in the management team? What should they discuss together first? When do you become involved?
Your own behaviour makes that expectation more credible. It does not replace the agreement. Otherwise, you can spend years trying to set a good example while becoming increasingly disappointed that nobody understands what you mean.
Ask how your example is experienced too. “I say I welcome disagreement. What do I do that still makes it difficult for you to disagree with me?” The answer may give you information you cannot find in your own good intentions.
Choose one visible moment
Look at a change you are asking your team to make. Where can employees already recognise that change in your behaviour today? And at what point do you do something that conflicts with it?
Choose something small enough to actually do differently. Let someone finish speaking before offering a solution. Return to an agreement you failed to keep. Or name a consideration you normally keep in your head.
Your example then becomes visible in everyday work. Your team can see what you mean, where you still have something to learn and which direction you want to take together.
In leadership coaching, we explore how your behaviour relates to what happens in your team. We look at the moments when things go well and, especially, at what happens when pressure increases.
