When you are the leader, it is important that you lead by example. The way you lead by example permeates your team, coworkers, management, customers, and everyone you come in contact. When you set a good example, it has a positive impact. If, however, you set a bad example, it has a very negative impact.
How Not To Lead By Example
Several years ago I had an experience where I had a leader that wasn’t a leader at all. When I worked under him he was responsible for training, leading by example, and giving a vision. As part of that responsibility, he was supposed to give us direction on what to do and how to do it. 
This was very important because we were all very new and he was the one with the most experience. His training and guidance was especially important because in the environment we worked in, we had very strict and specific rules and regulations that we had to follow. If we didn’t follow the rules with exactness, it would lead to major problems down the road. His guidance was very important.
Shirking Responsibilities
My leader regularly fell short on his responsibilities to the whole team. He didn’t lead by example and wouldn’t do his job because he was lazy and didn’t want to put forth the effort. When he would try to do his job, he would go on a power trip and become a dictator.
Negativity
He would put people down as he told them to do exactly what he said. When he got on his power trips, he would constantly say we needed to follow his “example” of how to get the job done. He would get an arrogant attitude as if he had been setting the perfect example all along.
Lack of Motivation
As I worked under him, there were many times where I found that I had to prod him to do his job and fulfill his responsibilities. I understand that no one is perfect and everyone has their shortfalls, but as a leader he didn’t even put forth an effort to lead by example. In no way was he an example that we could follow.
Summary
As you can see from the example above, the way you lead by example has a great impact on others. My leader’s poor example had a big impact on me and everyone around me. If he were to lead by example in a good way, it would have had a much different impact on everyone.
Have you ever gone through a situation like this? How did you handle the situation? How do you set the example for your people to follow? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below!
Interesting view and you are right on many accounts however as a leader and trainer who this is the most difficult position. While I know there are times I have failed to get my message across I noted that you used the phrase power trip. As a trainer my first priority is to train the person to do the job, that said sometimes a person even though they have the qualifications for the position they are un teachable. They always have a better method to do the job. I am not there to change the company nor did I hire them for that purpose. I am often seen as arrogant, but I know I am confident. I have been told I am on a power trip and at times it is true but most times I want the job done the way we have developed it to be done and later I will listen to ways to improve. But first I want you trained to do the job and do it right.
Trainers have a huge responsibility to the company as well as to the employee and at times they seem at conflict with one another.
Welcome Steve!
I really appreciate that you took the time to share your thoughts. You bring in a great perspective. From the trainers point of view you have some great points. I can see how people could misconstrue your desire to have the job done correctly, as you being arrogant, even when you are just trying to do a good job and maintain company standards.
Many times it is easy as a new person to the environment to try to change everything without understanding the process. Once you understand the reasons why something is done, your perspective changes and you begin to realize how the current practices came about. Until you have been there some time, you won’t see the whole picture.
In line with your points, I think it is very important for trainers to maintain some level of humility so that they can work effectively with others. If the trainer is so arrogant that they are rude and obnoxious towards the trainee, the trainee will shut down. From that point forward, the trainer-trainee relationship can be so strained that no teaching or learning happens even if the lessons are done.
Thanks again for sharing your great insight and knowledge.
Hey Brandon,
While I agree to your point of view to expect those in higher positions to be better examples, I would suggest perhaps the trainer wasn’t “lazy” per say, but maybe inflexible would be a better description.
I had a similar experience where I was placed in a position to replace someone who was going to retire after decades of service. This individual was very knowledgeable and had a very good work ethic. However, when it came to passing the knowledge and experience to me he was VERY stubborn and basically would only answer yes or no questions. I also question whether or not he was getting back at our supervisor, but that may or may not be true. Needless to say our transfer of knowledge was not a successful one and I was blamed for the failure.
I agree to what has been said with regards to the importance of proper training. A trainer must be expected to pull double duty. They must make sure that the trainee is learning the material, and is traveling in the right direction to complete competency. Maybe I’m wrong but a successful trainer has to be both a “manager and leader”.
Welcome Joe!
Thank you for commenting on this post. You make a good point about the trainer being “lazy”. Laziness may not be the accurate description. He may have been very busy working on things that we weren’t aware of when we weren’t around.
From my point of view at that time, he wasn’t doing his job to train me and my coworkers. In addition, he blatantly did things against the rules and regulations we were supposed to follow right in front of us. I was not with him all the time though, so I don’t know exactly what he was doing all the time.
I agree with you on how challenging it is to be a trainer. You have to do a balancing act between teaching people how to do things right and keeping up on all your own work. It is not easy because you can’t dedicate your full attention to either even if that is what you would like to do.
Thanks again for commenting.
Sometimes having a bad example is the best example on what not to do. Sometimes you can keep that bad example around to remind your people of what not to do. At one of our clients, they had a poorly performing CIO. They moved him to a director position for an area where he could do the least amount of damage. They purposely kept him around so they could refer to him by name at a lot of the executive team meetings. I’ve seen other clients do similar things to their people too.
I have mixed feelings about this. The problem was the person but the culture and process along with a strong lack of support for success.