In the past, when we’ve talked about training, much of the discussion has been on classes focusing on the mechanics thereof. For certain, these are vital issues, but they deal with the specialized areas of the business, not the day-to-day aspects of citizenship.
You may not think of it this way, but for better or worse, training is a part of everything you do or say in front of your people. What you do, they will do. For instance, if you don’t demand that your facilities be well maintained, it’s pretty likely that your people won’t either…in essence a kind of training program headed the wrong way.
So how do you set yourself up to deal with background issues—the nonverbal messages you send in seemingly trivial ways—that are an important first step to an effective training program?
Years ago, I read where General George Patton wrote in his diary that it was less important what a leader said than what he did. But further, it was less important what he did than what he was, and I think there’s something important here for anyone in command…a logical first step that in the beginning involves a little play-acting.
How you develop this mantle of leadership is yours to pursue, but it doesn’t come about by accident. You hear tell of “natural born leaders”—Caesar or Patton, for instance—but if you read what they had to say about the subject and themselves, you find that it was a lifelong endeavor that allowed them to replace inner doubt with an outward show of certainty. It is, in my humble opinion, the most basic element in your organization’s success, particularly in trying times such as we find ourselves today.