Monkey see Monkey do !

Last time I talked a lot about leadership and how it affects customer service and I promised I'd expand on that a bit more this time so here goes.

The title of this week's blog is not intended to be a slur on anyone but a very old saying which like so many very old sayings has a huge dose of truth in it.

When we are little we look up to our parents, older siblings, nannies, minders etc. to see how to act, there are lots of studies that prove that what we experience when we are children has a direct effect on the rest of our lives and it would be a brave man indeed who claimed that this is not the case.

My point is, this never ends, we continue to change our behaviour based on observing our direct superiors and colleagues or to put it another way, "Monkey see Monkey do"

You must have noticed in yourselves how your behaviour, speech mannerisms, language etc. alters when you are in different surroundings, do you use the same language to describe a missed tackle down the footy on Saturday as you do to describe a missed deadline at work on Monday morning?

Why is that?

Aren't you subconsciously fitting in with your environment, acting the way your peer group acts, going with the flow or whatever phrase best suits you?

Of course you are, I do the same, we all do, well almost all of us anyway.

Take a close look at the best leader you know personally, watch their body language, listen to how they say things not just what they say, if the studies are to be believed that's what you do 80% of the time anyway, but this time do it consciously.

What do you see, how does it compare to the worst leader you know?

If you are lucky you will see them painting pictures sure but you'll also see them and I'm going to use a horrid expression here, "Living the vision"

I can here you saying it now "WTF does that mean?"

Put as simply as I know how "Living the vision" means representing the best method of behaviour in everything you do, the finest example I can give you is Jesus Christ, now there was a man who lived the vision, there is nothing in the Bible that shows him doing anything that is inconsistent with what he was trying to achieve.

To truly live the vision you have to believe in what you are trying to do, gauge every act against your objectives and discard those that take you away from rather than towards your goal, you have to act as a role model at all times, not only in using the systems properly or wearing the right clothes etc. though these things are important, but in your attitude.

If you are trying to encourage honesty, say in retail or cash handling situations, then you must not steal, seems obvious doesn't it?

What about a pencil or a paperclip or a minute off the working day no one would begrudge you a paperclip surely? It's a short trip from a paperclip to a £5 note and that way lies ruin, how can you discipline a follower for dishonesty if you are guilty of the same crime but to a lesser extent?

When I was in a position of leadership I told my followers that they could do anything they saw me doing, you can bet your life it was a hell of an incentive to display the right attitude and do the right thing at all times.

Attitude is the single most important thing in life, there are hosts of saws about attitude I quite like "It is neither good nor bad, but thinking makes it so" which demonstrates for me that it is how we choose to perceive which makes the difference in how we react.

And like a badly scratched record that brings me back to Living the Vision.

OK so how does “Living the Vision” help people become better leaders?

Well, I've already established that people act differently in different surroundings and that we tend to look to our superiors to see how to act, so it's not much of a leap to see that if a leader wishes to produce a given attitude and behaviour in his staff he should model it himself.

Have you any respect for a "Do as I say, don't do as I do" kind of guy, do you religiously do as he says or do as he does?

Hmm interesting that, when you see juveniles in the papers or on television behaving badly what's the first thing that goes through your minds, is it "I blame the parents"?

I wonder why that is so common a reaction?

Of course there are bad eggs born to good families just as there are good eggs born in horrendous circumstances, there are no hard and fast rules in life but I am convinced that environment has a lot to do with how people behave, is it nature or nurture?

Given that I believe all that, it is no surprise that I believe also that by Living the Vision any leader can affect his followers for the good.

Keep an eye out for leaders in your environment and see how they affect their followers, see what vision they are living how they model behaviour and how closely their followers model them.

I think you'll be surprised !

John Anslow
http://www.ffriar.com