André de Waal about ‘A strong role model’ one of the 12 characteristics of the High Performance Organization (HPO) factor ‘Management Quality‘.
A role model is defined as ‘a person looked to by others as an example in a particular role.’ Research has shown that a member of the family is for most people their most important role model in life. The second most important role model however changes in the course of time: for people between 18 and 30 it is a teacher or a coach, for people over 30 it is a business leader. This business leader is not necessarily a top manager but more often the direct supervisor, thus the person to whom someone reports directly and works with daily. This means that every manager at every organizational level has to be a good role model because they have the most influence on employees’ motivation, loyalty, commitment and performance. Employees listen to what their managers do and not to what they say, so managers have to lead by doing and thus give the right behavioral example.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seFrfoaCPzA[/youtube]