chapter 1
The manager as role model — the key to influence
One of the most successful ways to influence people and raise performance in the workplace is for every manager to adopt the mindset of a role model. As Peter Drucker, author of Management Challenges for the 21st Century, has said, ‘People do what they see'. Just as children mimic the behaviour, actions and attitudes of their parents, employees look to their managers and leaders.
In the workplace, as in life, we find positive and negative role models. People copy people! Simple examples of this are the use of bad language and non-adherence to a dress code. It is interesting to note how often someone who dresses and speaks in a certain way when they first join the team will within six months have adapted their language and dress to match those of other team members or the leader.
After years of asking people at work who their role models are, and why, we have found there is a clear trend in the traits and characteristics defined and articulated. These we classify as conscious traits (traits that people can define and articulate).
However, there are also subconscious traits — traits that people are impacted by but are unaware of. These subconscious traits can include how a person presents themselves and how they speak, behave and act, all of which create a subconscious impression in others.
When was the last time you thought about yourself as a role model?
For most, not recently enough. If you want to influence how people think, feel and perform, you must become a role model — and make this a consistent and conscious mindset. This is not something that should be left to just happen. Those managers we interviewed who were considered by others to be role models understand this and actively work to control the perceptions others have of them.
In his book Moments of Truth, Jan Carlson describes how the perceptions others have of us are shaped by such ‘moments of truth'.
According to this theory, each moment of truth will affect, on a conscious or subconscious level, the way you are perceived. This, in turn, affects performance in the workplace — either positively or negatively. In other words, people are continually making conscious or unconscious judgements about you, your team, business or organisation and the way you work based purely on what they perceive you to do or not do. The facts have nothing to do with it!
Organisations who score the highest in terms of culture have managers who are conscious role models. They are taught how to role model and how to influence their staff to activate high performance. They also carefully control and monitor the perceptions others have of them.
During our research high-performing employees were asked if they felt their manager was a positive role model and, if so, what traits had the biggest influence and impact on their personal performance.
Regardless of industry, job function and status, the most common traits were consistency, a caring nature, authenticity (a sincere and genuine person), a good communicator, results oriented, and a desire to help and develop others. The first three components are summarised on the following pages and resurface throughout the book. The other components, mentioned again and again in a variety of contexts by the top performers surveyed, have sections of this book dedicated to them.
Consistency
Although a variety of words and phrases were used to describe this trait, the core finding was that a manager who behaved inconsistently and was unpredictable severely and gravely impacted high-performing team members and the overall performance of their team in a negative way.
The research showed that high performance requires an element of goodwill, and there is high correlation between goodwill and predictability. This also forms the basis of the strong psychological contract outlined in the introduction.
A consistent and predictable manager means staff are not ‘on edge', wondering what mood their manager is in and whether it is safe to tell them something or ask for help. Recent history tells us that many corporate collapses stem from the inability or unwillingness of team members to share knowledge with their managers for fear of what it could lead to.
Your team needs to feel safe with you. This is not about keeping them in their comfort zone and not challenging them; it is about making it safe for people to share the knowledge you need in all situations — good or bad.
As a role model, you should always adopt a philosophy of ‘no surprises' in any situation. Your people must trust you to respond logically and rationally when pushed to the edge. That is not to say you must always be happy. Your responses should be congruent with the specific situation, but a positive role model will always manage to apply a rational, non-threatening approach in the face of any adversity so they can deal with the problem and then move on.
A caring nature
This is a highly significant trait that people (and high performers in particular) look for in their role models and managers in business today. It is not a quality you are likely to learn about on any leadership course or at business school, but you will find that the word comes up time and time again in statements such as ‘They should take better care of us', ‘They just don't care' or ‘My manager doesn't care'.
Followers need their leaders, managers and role models to genuinely care — and to demonstrate this care — for their people. Employee engagement surveys consistently attest to this. Having a caring manager is now becoming a prerequisite for successful management, which has had a major impact on evolving management theory.
Managers who are perceived not to care about their people will not fully engage their teams, and without this engagement, higher levels of performance will rarely be achieved or sustained over the longer term.
Our research also shows that it is the high performers who are most often overlooked. Managers tend to believe that everything is okay with them as they are doing so well. But your high performers must feel they matter to you as people and not simply for the revenue they generate or the skills they bring to the table.
Think about it: how would your people rate you?
Authenticity and sincerity
If you are not perceived to be authentic and sincere, everything you do will be affected. This trait underpins most positive role models. A manager who is believed to be insincere will not activate high performance in their team. When a manager or organisation is deemed to be insincere or inauthentic, watch the staff turn over and performance plummet.
Here is a typical e...
