The Riddle of Lead By Example

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The top organizations in the United States share the following qualities in common: unrivaled service, innovation, employee-centricity, meticulous organization, clear communication, bottom-line awareness, and a mission-oriented approach that makes customer service the primary goal (Amos & Weathington, 2008). Organizations that come to mind are Starbucks, Lowe's Home Improvement, Marriott, and it would be an error not to mention Disney.

Other institutions and organizations are ambassadors of their culture and brand—think of sports teams and the United States Marine Corps. According to Millar (2016), they carry the image and represent the institution with which they are affiliated. Members are sold on supporting the mission of that entity and are transformed into brand ambassadors to align with the institution's goals, whether it's winning championships or national defense.

In an ideal situation, one would hope that all organizational leaders put others' interests before their own self-interest. Still, it is not impossible to think of cases where the opposite has occurred in other industries where leadership has been exposed for mismanagement or the misuse of power.

Although leadership faces challenges, according to leaders who are in tune with their moral compass, which guides their value system and simultaneously allows them to identify with their shared community, their moral compass gives their followers the perception that they are genuinely authentic (Steffens et al., 2021). The idea of a moral compass is closely connected to leading by example.

Barriers of Ineffectuality

Leadership is hard. Striving to influence others is the call of the hour for those in positions of influence who would meet their calling as servant leaders (Savel & Munro, 2017). Thus, many bricks within an organization's culture that support employees and the leadership team, facilitating a strong team foundation, are trust. Misused authority or power is a barrier to leadership effectiveness that can make a leader ineffective, which might be missing from the brick-and-mortar foundation of trust in the workplace culture. One type of misused power is coercive influence. This type of power authority is grounded in alarmism and intimidation when personnel fail to meet a leader's performance criteria (Marquis & Huston, 2021). This approach quickly demolishes trust.   

What is Power?

A classical and long-standing explanation of power will provide the atmosphere surrounding a leader's ineffectuality. Having power is the ability to generate energy for an intentional effect (Edwards, 1967). A more scientific definition may serve a purpose, as power is the speed at which work is performed (Cullerne, 2009). However, a final explanation will still stay in mind, especially for organizational leadership. Power is neither positive nor negative; instead, it is how one wields and uses one's energies, abilities, and potential to achieve an effect (Marquis & Huston, 2021).

Empower vs. Power

Over time, teams that have developed trust can build healthy work relationships. When staff feel that their leaders are performing good work, when staff feel that their leaders foster the interest of their personnel, and when staff perceive that no one is trying to control them, it is said that the team and the leader are working in partnership (Marquis & Huston, 2021). It takes time to build trust; the fastest way to build trust is by getting to know those on a leader's team. In theory, the power struggle diminishes in the workplace when direct reports feel that their needs are being met and a genuine workplace partnership exists between staff and leadership.

The Leaders Self-Esteem

Contingent self-esteem, as defined by Gardner et al. (2005), refers to an individual who primarily derives their self-worth from external and environmental confirmation from others, situations, and/or circumstances. By contrast, idyllic self-esteem is that type of self-worth in an individual manifested to the extent that such persons navigate daily life from a position without fear or favor of the impact of favorable and unfavorable events in their life, can realistically evaluate and are settled with their current skills, abilities, shortcomings, and perceived or fundamental inadequacies and who can cope with adversity by remaining untainted by negative perceptions of themselves.

Less-than-stellar workplace environments exhibit the following characteristics of ineffectual leaders: an uncommitted demeanor, unsupportive behavior, failing to consider others' thoughts in decisions, and low visibility in rounding out to keep the workplace sound (Farokhzadian et al., 2018). Best practices, by contrast, are establishing a safe work environment both physically and mentally, departmental commitment, having an "open-door policy, listening to staff concerns, department visibility, and frequent unit rounding.

References:

Amos, E. A., & Weathington, B. L. (2008). An analysis of the relation between employee-organization value congruence and employee attitudes. The Journal of Psychology, 142(6), 615-31. http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JRLP.142.6.615-632

Cullerne, J. (2009). Power. In J. Cullerne (Ed.), The Penguin dictionary of physics (4th ed.). Penguin. Credo Reference: https://lopes.idm.oclc.org/login?

url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/pendphys/power/0?institutionId=5865

Edwards, P. (1967). Power. In The encyclopedia of philosophy (Vol. 6, pp. 424-427). Macmillan company & the Free Press.

Farokhzadian, J., Nahid, D. N., & Borhani, F. (2018). The long way ahead to achieve an effective patient safety culture: Challenges perceived by nurses. BMC Health Services Research, 18http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12913-018-3467-1

Gardner, W. L., Avolio, B. J., Luthans, F., May, D. R., & Walumbwa, F. (2005). "Can you see the real me?" A self-based model of authentic leader and Follower Development. The Leadership Quarterly, 16(3), 343–372. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.003

Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2021). Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: Theory and application (10th ed.). Wolters Kluwer. 

Millar, R. (2016). Turning employees into brand champions: Leadership style makes a difference. In R. Millar (Ed.), Ideas for Leaders collection. IEDP Ideas for Leaders Ltd. Credo Reference: https://lopes.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/idealideas/turning_employees_into_brand_champions_leadership_style_makes_a_difference/0?institutionId=5865

Savel, R. H., & Munro, C. L. (2017). Servant leadership: The primacy of service. American Journal of Critical Care, 26(2), 97–99. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.4037/ajcc2017356

Steffens, N. K., Wolyniec, N., Okimoto, T., Mols, F., Haslam, S. A., & Kay, A. (2021). Knowing me, knowing us: Personal and collective self-awareness enhances authentic leadership and leader endorsement. The Leadership Quarterly, 32(6). https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/z2r7f