I’ve been thinking about this subject for a few weeks now. In general, no matter what, every so often I struggle with the leadership around me. I see great leaders out there but typically, I’m not engaged with them for whatever reason.

Lately, I have noticed that many people who are in leadership positions don’t do the same things that they ask their subordinates to do. In my case, it is my direct boss and because of this, I am losing more and more respect for him. Too often he makes requests of my co-workers and me to do things (such as get certified, etc) but yet he is unwilling to do those very same things. In the case of certification, we all need to have certain professional certifications (him included) so he tells us to go study and take the tests. His best advice is schedule the exam as it will force you to study when there is a deadline. While I completely agree with this and have done so just to keep me motivated, it is hard to stay motivated when you have taken and passed 8 tests in the past 12 months and he hasn’t taken any.

Granted, this is just one case, but it happens time and time again. He blatantly ignores customers or tries to push them off to people who have no business dealing with some of the issues.

It’s not only myself losing respect for him but my co-workers as well. I have a firm belief that if you want to lead, you should be the first one into the muck and the last one out. That means you are willing to do what you ask of others. Not only should you be walking the walk, your people need to know that when you say yes, you mean it and when you say no, it means no, but that is a whole other topic.

In the end, if you want to lead, do the things that you are going to ask of your people. If you aren’t, it won’t be long before you start losing people due to them losing respect for you. There are times when you need your underlings to do things that you shouldn’t be doing but in long run, you know that you have to walk the talk.