Demanding Leadership

True leaders demand excellence from themselves, before they ask it of others.

Before you can demand something from others, you must demand it from yourself.  You have to practice what you preach.  If you are going to ask someone to be on time for a meeting, you have to be on time.  Leadership that is demanding is not about being a dictatorship, it is about excellence.  It is about eliminating mediocrity and pursuing excellence in everything you do. 

During a conversation with the CEO of a fortune 500 company he was talking about his commitment to safety.  He stated that if he was going to demand that his team practice safe work habits that he needed to make the same demand of himself.  This is a critical element missing in many leaders today.  “Do as I say, not as I do” seems to be the mantra of the day.

As a leader how can you demand anything from anyone if you do not hold yourself to a higher standard of conduct?  Have you ever had a boss tell you to do something they have never done before?  And yet, they assign you a task that may not have ever been done.  I remember a quote that a former supervisor told me and I will never forget it:  “nothing is impossible to those who do not have to do it.”  I remember sitting down with one of my billing clerks to learn more about the billing process.  My reason for doing it was to gain a better understanding of what they were doing and how they did it.  This allowed me to set more realistic goals for my clerks because I now knew what it took to get the job done.

Our job as leaders is to create an environment that fosters trust, integrity, credibility, and a successful work team.  If you set the right example by serving as a role model and having your actions speak loader than words, you will be a better leader.