Leadership - Constant Reminder

During a recent leadership face-to-face meeting, yes we are back to doing those thankfully, we were each given a small token. The Director had gone to Tim Hortons for her tea when she found some bracelets for sale on the counter next to the cashier. She returned with a bracelet for each of us as a small gift to thank us for our work.

The bracelets were a fundraising initiative for Tim Hortons Camp Day 2021; Camp Day is the single most important fundraiser for Tim Hortons Foundation Camps –?a multi-year leadership development program for youth aged 12-16.

We each immediately put the bracelets on our wrists. I simply put mine on with little thought, other than the thought of appreciation for her gesture. As I sat through the meeting I began to look down at the bracelet. I noticed that the word LEADERSHIP was facing outwards. While I had not done that on purpose, I noticed that it was showing others that I was a "leader". I then took it off and turned it around so that the word LEADERSHIP now faced me to remind myself of what I needed to do.

As I thought about it more, I did not feel the need to tell others that I was a leader. Rather, I wanted to remind myself of the importance of my role to others. The reminder that what I did needed to be the best for those that I served with.

I spent my whole career in a rank and file system where leadership levels were very obvious by what was on a person's shoulders. Ironically, even in that environment some felt the need to "remind" others of their level.

I once worked for an organization that developed a platoon supervisor role; these individuals were assigned to a shift pattern and were there for the members support during that operational period. That team designed their uniform jackets to read Supervisor on the back (where the rest of us had the agency's name). Keep in mind they already had their rank on the jacket's epaulettes. I asked one of them why they had done this. His reply was, "so people know who we are when we arrive on scene" (I felt the big marked SUV with SUPERVISOR written everywhere would have helped with that). My colleague, a fellow chief, was standing next to me and said, "I'm pretty sure Pascal and I could arrive at a scene in Hawai'ian shirts and people would figure out who we were without the billboard". He reminded our friend that it was how you carried yourself that was important, not what you wrote on your jacket.

I knew a person in another organization that was in an acting role. This person made it very clear that they were the Acting Superintendent to everyone, even to their team and peers (the Inspectors that that person normally worked alongside). They even had it in their signature block and often said to their peers, "well as I am the Acting Superintendent...". Keeping in mind that the acting role was temporary and each of that person's peers rotated through the role at times.

While these two examples are not the majority of leaders out there, we as leaders do need the reminder of what our role truly is and who we serve in that role. It is less about which way your bracelet is facing, or if you show up to a plane crash as the Incident Commander with a Supervisor jacket on or in a Hawai'ian shirt (I am not going to deny that ever happened), than how you carry yourself. After all, some of the best leaders have no rank at all.

Lead well and others will know what your role is...so turn your bracelet around and remind yourself rather than telling others.