Whether they know it or not, leaders set the pace for their organization.
Calculus was one of my funnest classes in high school—not because calculus is fun, but because I had an energetic, eccentric, & hilarious hobbit-of-a-man as my teacher. He would literally jump around the classroom telling jokes purposely mispronouncing the names of his students as he taught.
In the middle of an excessively long math problem, he would love turning to the class to say, “take a break, have a Snickers!” …and then frantically resume solving the equation at breakneck speeds.
How did he do that? How did he make Calculus fun?? It’s because he was fun.
Leaders invite others to participate in what they are already doing.
Leaders set the pace even when they’re not trying to. If a leader is quiet and disengaged, how engaged do you think his followers are going to be?
If leadership is influence, then leaders can either influence a culture positively or negatively, but there’s not much in between.
