Page 216 - Just Promoted A 12 Month Road Map for Success in Your New Leadership Role

From Resistance to Renewal 201

will act on perceptions as though they are true. And you must respond. You
cannot ignore them simply because you know they are untrue.

10. Rule of modeling. Beginning in infancy, we learn how things are done
through modeling, habit, and reinforcement. A type of programming occurs.
The rule of modeling says that we tend to do first that which has been modeled
for us. We will usually act as we have seen others around us behave in the past.
The young manager is fortunate who has worked for an excellent manager.
A few months of observing and modeling the behavior of an excellent man-
ager is more helpful than a dozen people with good ideas, or a dozen months
spent in school.
Jessica had been on the faculty of a large state university for 12 years, when
one of her former students offered her a job as vice president in his rapidly
growing company. Eager for a new opportunity, challenge, and the chance to
grow, she took the position.
To Jessica’s great surprise, while she was brilliant at product design, sales,
and service, she was not as skilled in managing and leading her function. Her
university experience prepared her to be a self-starter and an independent
thinker and operator. She was analytical, mentally nimble, quick to solve prob-
lems, and a good colleague.
But never in her 12 years of relative autonomy at the university had she
ever been managed. Comfortable managing herself, she knew little about the
role of leading others. She had never hired, supervised, trained, disciplined,
or fired an employee, nor had she seen it done well. Never had she had a per-
formance appraisal. She never had a performance plan, never managed one,
and she didn’t know how to plan work flow, the work of others, or a budget.
While very concerned about her employees and their performance, she was
essentially uncomfortable devoting a majority of her time to managing them.
She was happier doing her own work.
Fortunately for Jessica, she reported to an experienced, professionally
trained leader, who made management and leadership his career. As Jessica
began to model some of her boss’s behaviors, she was able to provide a better
model for her own employees, and she developed not only a motivated but
also a more organized, rational organization. To help your organization adopt
new norms and behaviors, you will have to develop them yourself, and then
model them, talk about them, and reward them in others.