Act like a leader before you become one

Peter Drucker discovered that there is a single, critical prerequisite to becoming a leader in any group or organization. It is not having a good education or the right connections, though those characteristics play an important role. Instead, it is the decision to become a leader in the first place.

Based on his research into great leaders, ranging from Bill Clinton to Julius Caesar, Drucker contended that more than any other attribute or skill, the decision to become a leader is the first step in doing so. Without this basic but crucial decision, a leader will never emerge.  

Yet as General Ronald Fogleman, 4-star general and Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force, explained, this decision must be made entirely by the individual.

Organizations are always looking for individuals to lead new projects or initiatives, one just needs to volunteer. As General Fogelman advised the entire Air Force, “If you want to be a leader in your organization, all you need to do is raise your hand.”

How a new engineer became a leader

A few years ago, a young engineer graduated from college and his first job was as an assistant design engineer at a large corporation. He had only been working a couple months when his boss, the department manager, called him into his office. His boss told him that once a year the company hosted a savings bond drive throughout the corporation and every department needed its own bond drive manager.

The role was considered important but unpaid and difficult so it often fell to the most junior employee in each department. Most employees had already purchased bonds in the past and convincing them to buy more bonds was not always easy. The young assistant design engineer agreed to accept the responsibility and became the department’s bond drive manager that year.

The other bond drive managers of other departments simply got a list of engineers and other workers in their departments and called them by phone asking them to purchase additional bonds. That was the minimum that was expected. But this new assistant design engineer did a lot more.

He made appointments and took the time to meet with each department member personally. He prepared in advance by researching the advantages of buying savings bonds. He read books about selling and prepared himself to use the sales techniques they described. He was always pleasant and enjoyed meeting and talking with his associates. He got to know his colleagues, made friends with them and then he sold them bonds. 

There was a large chart in the company cafeteria which graphically compared bond sales in each department. His department’s sales were far greater than other departments’. Other department heads and executives wanted to know why the sales in his department were so high. The answer the department head gave was straightforward. It was this new assistant design engineer who visited every employee in the department and embraced new sales techniques.

Sales in his department soared. He promoted their competitive spirit, and his department purchased more bonds than any other. His sales were so far ahead of every other department’s bond sales, that the president of the company noticed and called the department manager to find out what had happened. The bond sales campaign was over in a month, but it wasn’t forgotten, nor was the young engineer.

When an engineering project was started that required job overtime, hard work and creative ability, his department manager gave the job to him. As expected from his performance as a bond salesman, it was thought that he would do a good job in this engineering project, and he did. When the department manager was moved to a different job, he recommended that the young engineer be promoted to fill his position.

The engineer was still very junior and he was not selected but, when a new engineering department was formed, the young engineer was named acting Department Manager. Not long afterwards he was made permanent department manager of the new department. A few years later, he became the company’s youngest vice president.

Why more employees do not raise their hands and become leaders

Even though they may be attracted by the prestige and other benefits that may go with being a leader, many employees do not want the responsibility. They are afraid of making poor decisions, that they have too little knowledge and subordinates will not obey them. They worry that others will think their performance poor and they will be unpopular when they must make difficult decisions.

An article in the Harvard Business Review cited a survey that found that only about 34 percent of thousands of employees across many industries and corporations of all types say they want to be managers. Only 7 percent, however, aspire to be a top ranked executive.

A similar study of undergraduate students in the UK found a similar low percentage. Many wanted responsibility only within their specialty and not for the actions of others. Many that were willing or sought to accept the responsibility of leadership felt that they must wait until they were promoted to a position that identified them permanently as a leader and were sent to a course to learn to become one first. Most in both studies were also reluctant to accept additional temporary leadership assignments by volunteering for unpaid positions like the savings bond salesman.

Do not wait to be promoted to become a leader

Many that are not in leadership positions but are actively seeking promotion to permanently identified positions have this backward. Although there are exceptions, first they must demonstrate they are a leader, or at least show the potential for becoming a leader before being selected for promotion.

Some start as early as childhood by assisting parents or siblings. By serving as an unofficial leader within the family, they demonstrate their potential to themselves, acquire self-confidence and develop leadership skills at a young age. When I spoke to Mary Kay Ash years ago, the woman who founded the billon dollar Mary Kay Cosmetics company and trained thousands of leaders worldwide, she revealed that she had assumed responsibility for caring for her invalid father when she was only six years old.