What Are You Modeling?

“One of the most important unspoken unnamed parts of being a leader is modeling.” – Jerry Colonna

Leaders arrive at a certain point in their company’s trajectory wondering not only “What’s my job, now?” but also “What meetings should I be in?” “How and what do I delegate?” “How do I think about personal time?” and “How do I take care of myself as the leader?” In this week’s episode of Operators Manual, we expand into these questions for some nuggets of wisdom for your leadership behavior.

As Jerry reminds us in this conversation, it’s the CEOs job to build the machine that builds the products and services, not to build the products and services. When you consider a founder CEO, for example, who has been around since the inception of the company, their role is one of steep growth as the team scales. While the broad strokes of their job description remain similar on that growth arc, the finer points undergo a series of shifts as the team evolves. If the proper machine hasn’t been built, that makes leading more difficult. 

What leaders model by their way of being extends beyond one’s leadership behaviors and how much vacation time they use and how they arrange their calendar. What you model as a leader lends itself to a larger inquiry of what it feels like to work at your organization. What kind of company are you building? How would you feel if your child or significant other came to work for the company?