Five Tips to Inspire

First-Time Leaders

By: Kirk Lawrence

Program Director
UNC Executive Development

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Website: www.execdev.unc.edu |Phone: 1.800.862.3932 |Email: unc_exec@unc.edu
Five Tips to Inspire First-Time Leaders

Introduction
here are nearly 30,000 books for sale on Amazon dedicated to the topic of leadership, so there is
T obviously no shortage of writers publishing their thoughts and offering advice. There is also no
shortage of leadership positions currently available or about to be available; 500 of the largest U.S.
companies are expected to lose half of their senior managers over the next five years, and 70 percent
of companies report moderate to severe leadership shortages (Doyon and Tramblay, 2013). As an
estimated 85 million baby boomers retire or take on less demanding roles, the global leadership
shortage will only escalate (Chrisco, 2013).

A survey by Patrick Doyon and Valerie Tramblay (2013) found that most employers understand the
link between a strong leadership pipeline and their organizations’ likelihood of success, but most
acknowledge that they have a lot of work to do to strengthen that pipeline. Based on survey results,
the authors also recommended that employers increase efforts to develop the self-management and
interpersonal competencies in emerging leaders and focus less on the functional and technical
competencies. These conclusions coincide with the following five tips; each one focuses on the
development of self-management and interpersonal competencies that I have found cut across
industries and organizations.

I bring a practitioner’s approach to this area with more than 35 years of experience leading large and
small organizations. It has been my experience that although there may be differences in
organizational cultures and environments that drive different behaviors, the principles of exceptional
leadership are constant regardless of whether one works in a hierarchical environment like the military
or a matrixed company such as IBM.

In this white paper, I offer five tips based on my own experience that HR and talent management
professionals can use to inspire and direct leadership development in their organizations:

1. To be a good leader, first be a good follower.

2. Listen and learn.
3. Practice the ethic of reciprocity.
4. Don’t confuse being liked with being respected.
5. At the end of the day, it is your integrity that defines you.

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Tip 1: To be a good leader, first be a good

follower
he Mark Zuckerberg’s of this world—corporate leaders propelled into their positions because of
T what they created—are few and far between. Most leaders start in much humbler, entry-level
positions and work their way up the corporate ladder, and this is a good thing. Emerging leaders who
work their way up learn about what motivates them and their co-workers. They also learn about what
makes a team work well together to achieve goals. They also learn what good—and not so good—
leadership is, and this allows them to develop empathy and compassion for those they will one day
lead. In essence, they learn key “followership” lessons that will serve them well when they become
leaders.

According to Barbara Kellerman, a leadership lecturer at Harvard University, there is a lot a person
can learn about being a good leader by being a good follower. Good followers, she says, are
passionately committed and deeply involved. They actively support a good leader (one who is
effective and ethical). Bad followers, on the other hand, do nothing to contribute to the group or the
organization (Kellerman, 2007).

Good followers learn five skills that will serve them well as good leaders:

 Awareness
 Diplomacy
 Courage
 Collaboration
 Critical thinking

Good followers learn to “read” their colleagues, co-workers, customers, and other audiences. They
understand what motivates them and what upsets them, skills that they can use when they become
leaders. Good followers also learn important diplomacy skills, like the ability to get along well with
others while not ignoring differences—for example, working well with a colleague who has different
political beliefs. Good followers also need to learn to be courageous. Kellerman notes that good
followers can aid the leader when he or she is doing the right thing—but they also have to have the
courage to stand up to the leader if he or she is doing something wrong (Moran, 2014).

Good followers also learn important collaboration skills that will serve them well as leaders. Good
followers and good leaders understand that followers (good and bad) can make or break a leader by
influencing how and what goals get achieved. Good followers will assist their leaders in achieving
goals. Bad followers can actively sabotage the achievement of goals (Moran, 2014). Good followers
also learn to think for themselves and will stand up to a leader who may be heading in the wrong
direction (Moran, 2014).

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Being a good follower does not end when one becomes a leader. It is important that emerging leaders
understand that they must continue to practice good followership in their leadership roles; they
become good followership leaders. During a keynote speech in 2012, former HP executive vice
president Vyomesh Joshi said the key to being a great leader was to practice good followership
(Peterson, 2013). He noted that leaders who practiced good followership possessed four attributes:

1. Trust - Good followership leaders provide followers with evidence that they can be
trusted. They provide honesty and transparency.
2. Stability - Good followership leaders remain calm and exude a sense of confidence
to those around them—even in the midst of chaos.
3. Compassion - Good followership leaders have an unrelenting passion and empathy
for people.
4. Hope - Good followership leaders have an unwavering belief that their product or
service will succeed and will change lives (Peterson, 2013).

In other words, leaders who have been good followers and who practice good followership principles
as leaders understand how to work with people to bring out the best in them.

Tip 2: Listen and learn

eep in mind that the most qualified and knowledgeable person about your new leadership role is
K the person you just replaced. Emerging leaders need to understand that unless their predecessor
was fired, which can happen but is not the norm, the person they just replaced spent years learning,
growing, making mistakes, and getting better and better at the job. New leaders should refrain, then,
from barging into new positions full of criticism for the people who came before them.

HR and talent management professionals can help new leaders succeed in the job by coaching them to
take a couple of weeks to talk to colleagues and ask questions like “What did my predecessor do that
worked well?” “What ‘good ideas’ were already tried and failed? Is there a way to make them work?”
And then listen, listen, and listen some more.

Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, believes listening is one of the most important skills a
leader should have. “Listening,” says Branson, “enables us to learn from each other, from the
marketplace, and from the mistake that must be made in order to get anywhere that is original and
disruptive” (Schawbel, 2014).

To quote Calvin Coolidge, “no man ever listened himself out of a job,” but it is a skill about 25
percent of corporate leaders aren’t making the most of, according to author and advisor Ram Charan
(Costa, 2013). To hone listening skills, HR and talent management professionals can coach new and
emerging leaders on how to actively listen. To hone listening skills, new and emerging leaders should:

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 Know what they don’t know. Eight-five percent of what is learned is acquired
through listening. When emerging leaders encounter a new situation, they should
identify what they don’t know and what they should know. Once that knowledge gap
is identified, they should seek out as many team members as possible and ask them
questions to get the needed insight and answers.
 Actively listen and care for the messenger. New and emerging leaders should be
coached to turn off all devices and any internal distractions (i.e. that mental “to-do”
list) and to eliminate any preconceived notions, biases, and judgements and engage
100 percent.
 Use 360 degree listening—meet face to face. This can help emerging leaders read
verbal and nonverbal cues, and it assures others that active listening has occurred
(Costa, 2013).
 Don’t interrupt.

When good leaders practice these active listening skills, they show employees that they care about
them, and this, in turn, can encourage employees to work harder. Good listening skills help leaders
engage in matters that are important to their employees, and this engages them. There is no bad side
when it comes to listening to employees—and good leaders keep that in mind.

CEO Involvement in Emerging Leaders’ Growth

What role does an organization’s CEO play in the professional development of new and emerging
leaders? To what extent are they involved in teaching emerging leaders what “right” looks like? Has
the CEO been involved in the professional development of their more senior leaders? Are these
leaders in synch with the CEO’s beliefs in which behaviors are critical for success?

Emerging leaders are thirsty for someone to teach them. They are like sponges that will soak up what
they observe and model behavior to which they are exposed to and with which they equate with
success. HR and talent management professionals must ensure that CEOs are helping emerging
leaders and must ask what their CEOs are doing to provide these emerging leaders with advice and
guidance to become better leaders. Are they taking the time to invest in their development? What
behaviors does the CEO model that emerging leaders will replicate as they progress into positions of
greater responsibility? To use a metaphor, if emerging leaders are driving down a road, what
guardrails is the CEO personally providing that help keep them on the road and headed in the right
direction?

(continued on next page)

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CEO Involvement in Emerging Leaders’ Growth (continued)

The vast majority of employees want to be successful. Some will really stand out in ability and
potential and will crave development. Others will have to be nudged but still, at the end of the day,
will want to grow. As they grow, the opportunity to lead increases. Outside of formal development
programs, what does the organization offer to help shape them? What advice will the CEO give
them to help them? All leaders have had experiences that have shaped them and hopefully have
given them an idea of what good leadership really is.

According to research, 60 percent of organizations use instructor-led training to get emerging

leaders up to speed. Only 34 percent of organizations use professional conferences, and only a third
of organizations use a combination of internal mentoring and coaching (Doyon and Tremblay, 2013).
Only 13 percent of organizations say they frequently engage professional coaches to help emerging
leaders. This may be a mistake. When coaching is added to leadership development experiences,
productivity rises 88 percent. By contrast, in leadership development experiences that lack a
coaching component, productivity rises only 22 percent (Doyon and Tremblay, 2013). Coaching also
helps high-potential employees acquire new leadership behaviors, improves engagement and
retention, and improves managerial competencies (Doyon and Tremblay, 2013).

Coaching is good for any generation, but it is particularly effective for Generation X, those born
between 1960 and 1989. According to a survey by the Center for Creative Leadership, half of
Generation X respondents said they preferred to learn soft leadership skills through on-the-job
experiences, peer interaction and feedback, discussion groups, and one-on-one coaching. It is
interesting to note that instructor-led training failed to make the list.

Tip 3: Practice the ethic of reciprocity

he ethic of reciprocity is known by many as the Golden Rule—to treat others as we would wish
T to be treated ourselves—but it really is a universal ethic that spans religions, philosophical, and
secular systems. It is also an ethic that has worked its way into leadership theory and practice.

One such leadership theory is the Cohen-Bradford Influence Model, proposed in 2005 by professors
Allan Cohen and David Bradford in an article for Journal of Organizational Excellence. The model
was established on the premise that authority does not guarantee support and commitment from those
around the authority figure. The model is based on the law of reciprocity—the belief that all the
positive and negative things people do to others will be paid back in kind over time (MindTools staff,
n.d.).

The model is intended to help employees at all levels negotiate so everyone gets what he or she wants.
Leaders should also use reciprocity, because, as Cohen and Bradford presume, authority is not

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automatically awarded with support and commitment from those around the leader. So how does a
leader best cultivate reciprocity? By following the model’s steps to gain influence without authority:

1. Assume everyone can help. For example, a new leader can and should ask questions
and listen attentively to her entire staff.
2. Prioritize objectives—ask why you are trying to influence. For example, a new
leader may identify that she is trying to influence each and every staff member to
gain their support and commitment.
3. Understand the other person’s situation; practice empathy. For a new leader, for
example, gaining support and commitment from each staff member means learning
more about each and every one of them—perhaps by meeting them one-on-one to
learn more about what they do, their interests, etc.
4. Identify what matters to you as a leader and to the other person. During a one-
on-one meeting, for example, a new leader may sense that in the past, poor
communication hampered the development of trust among the staff and the previous
director. She can conclude the meeting by identifying what matters to her as a leader
(“I want to ensure that there is honesty and transparency in our department moving
forward”) and what matters to the other person (“And on that note, you want
communication to be a two-way process”).
5. Analyze relationships. The new leader, for example, can conclude each meeting
with a summary of what the participants learned about each other and how they want
the professional relationship to proceed in the future.
6. Make the exchange. The new leader and her direct report, for example, can create a
communication plan that includes honesty, transparency, and two-way
communication.

By following the model’s steps, the new leader has made great strides in gaining staff support and
commitment. The ethic of reciprocity is not just applicable to leaders—it’s a pretty good rule for how
to live life.

Tip 4: Don’t confuse being liked with

being respected
T he late Margaret Thatcher once said, “If you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to
compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.”

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It’s natural to want to be liked. Young leaders sometime have an inherent desire to want to be
considered the hip, all-around-cool-person leader. But HR and talent management professionals must
coach young leaders about the difference between being liked and being respected. They must be
coached that leadership is not a popularity contest; that they will have to make difficult decisions that
are not popular in order to make their organizations better. And that they’d better be prepared to sell
their teams on the decision to get buy-in.

Respect is earned by accomplishing what needs to be done and by creating a desire among others to
work together to accomplish goals without question because of the regard they have for their leaders.
Respect is also about leaders building trust among their team members.

It is also about treating employees fairly, even if they are being counseled for poor performance.
Employees will look to see if their leader is consistent in being fair—and if the leader falls short,
respect will not be earned. Leaders who think they can earn respect by trying to be everyone’s friend
at the risk of being fair will find their authority undermined.

HR and talent management professionals should coach emerging leaders that earning respect is far
more important than being loved. The best leaders make clear and decisive judgment calls for the
betterment of their organizations. There will always be doubters and naysayers; good leaders allow
them their voice, but stay the course because they believe in their decisions. Good leaders who make
more good calls than bad ones will be respected.

Tip 5: At the end of the day, it is your

integrity that defines you
D wight D. Eisenhower once said, “The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably
integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a
football field, in the army, or in the office.”

Integrity, as Col. Eric Kail, course director of military leadership at the U.S. Military Academy in
West Point, N.Y., states, is adherence to a moral code or ethical principle, plus the pursuit of an
undiminished state or condition (Kail, 2011). Integrity is honesty, and, as a very wise boss once told
me, doing the right thing even when no one is looking.

There is a good business case to be made for fostering integrity in the workplace. Organizations with
high levels of integrity experience lower employee turnover, higher customer satisfaction, and
superior revenue growth. For more information about the return on integrity in organizations, see the
UNC Executive Development white paper Return on Integrity: How Acting with Integrity Improves
Business Results.

HR and talent management professionals should coach new leaders on why integrity matters and how
their organizations support integrity in leaders. They can also coach new leaders on how to
demonstrate integrity. In a 2012 white paper for the Center for Creative Leadership, authors William

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Gentry, Kristen Cullen, and David Altman identified nine things leaders do to show integrity:

1. They support the team even under pressure.

2. They take responsibility for their problems; they accept mistakes and failures and
learn from them.
3. They help others without expecting something in return, but they help because it is
the right thing to do.
4. They still live by their principles when given power.
5. They treat low-level employees with respect.
6. They don’t waste their free time. They use it as an opportunity to create or learn
something.
7. They surround themselves with peers who push them to be better.
8. They don’t pretend to know everything.
9. They welcome valid criticism. (Gentry, Cullen, and Altman, 2012).

HR and talent management professionals should encourage new leaders to act with integrity. Walk the
talk. Be consistent, honest, moral, and trustworthy. New leaders must understand that it is vital that
leaders model integrity because it shapes an organization’s culture. And that means doing the right
thing, even if no one is looking.

Conclusion
o there you have it. It has been my experience that these tips on how to inspire young leaders are
S consistent across industries and organizational structures. HR and talent management
professionals can help ensure the success of new leaders in their organizations by coaching them on
being good followers, respecting and expanding on the good work of their predecessors, practicing
reciprocity, learning how to gain respect, and perhaps most importantly, maintaining their integrity.
This is advice that I hope HR and talent management professionals will share with new leaders in their
organizations to help them in their journeys to learn how to lead.

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About UNC Executive Development

Our approach to program design and delivery draws upon the power of real-world, applicable
experiences from our faculty and staff, integrated with the knowledge our client partners share about
the challenges they face.

We combine traditional with experiential and unique learning to ensure that all individuals gain
relevant new skills that they can easily implement within their own organizations. Through action
learning and business simulation activities, we challenge participants to think, reflect and make
decisions differently.

Our Approach: The Partnership

Our team customizes each leadership program through a highly collaborative process that involves our
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clients and individual participants to ensure that their learning experiences have been meaningful and
impactful. This integrated approach consistently drives strong outcomes.

Our Approach: The Results

Our executive education programs are designed with results in mind, and we are focused on
successfully meeting our clients' business and academic expectations. Below are a few examples of
the results our client partners have achieved:

 Leadership refocused with new  Products redefined

strategy and cohesive vision  New markets targeted
 Strategic plans created for the global  Cost-saving measures developed
marketplace  Silos leveled
 Supply chains streamlined  Teams aligned

Participants leave empowered to bring in new ideas, present different ways to grow business and
tackle challenges. The result is stronger individuals leading stronger teams and organizations.

Contact Us
Website: www.execdev.unc.edu | Phone: 1.800.862.3932 | Email: unc_exec@unc.edu

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Feloni, R. (29 July 2014). 9 subtle things leaders do that show they have integrity. Business Insider.
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