Setting the Example means that your life is transparent and unified. We can define leadership as a property of the group, and is the act of influencing a group to achieve its goals that defines a leader. Setting an Example is one of the key ways we have of ensuring culture, respect and genuine loyalty.

While a very simple act on the face of it, none is more important. If you fail to demonstrate this act to your people be that family, employees, customers and the like you will succumb to the potential of negative results. No matter how good your talk is, if you don’t match it with your walk, you will earn no respect and find it increasingly difficult to get results.

Setting an Example is where you show your values. When you demonstrate values, and that your character has integrity, that is, if who you are the same person all the time then you will accomplish far more than you might imagine. For this kind of leader, they have those actions returned in kind and in results.

It may be more difficult under some circumstances to set a positive example, but that shouldn’t stop you! Setting an Example is where your actions are centric to your values.

When you constantly set an  example, you will get the results you want as a leader.

Recently I was interviewed on Kiwi Nation for a series of interviews about Leaders who run businesses in New Zealand. It was played on Kiwi FM last week.

KiwiNation is an audio and video podcast of conversations with interesting and inspirational New Zealanders. Hosted by Glenn Williams from wammo.co.nz and Ben Young from bwagy.com, the aim is to expose stories and inspire not only Kiwis but also the rest of the world. Jump in a take a look around our KiwiNation! The first season contains 4 episodes which are released weekly. In 2011 Season 2 will be released.

There is a void between moving forward successfully and coming to a standstill.  Generally it is based around the desire to ask questions or the ability to follow up.  On many occasions trying to get progress without genuine questions will lead to frustration and the potential mind space of not being able to follow up.  Based on the rules of communication, if you can’t make a mistake by asking a question then the more questions you ask the more knowledge you gain.

In a recent example we conducted a secret shopper campaign within our company.  We undertook over 100 open homes of salespeople from within our business and also from other real estate companies.  An open home is when an individual comes into contact with a salesperson, who then generally has to follow up to be able to make more of that potential business.  When there is no follow up the business is lost at that point.  When there is follow up the business continues to be available and, depending on the skills, can be converted to more business.

The reason why questions are so important is because there is one space in business you don’t want to be – and maybe this is also a part of our life experience – and that is the space of “don’t know”.  It is the bearer of a lot of thought and allows possibility and options but if the “don’t know” space is where you end then you are unlikely to be the converter of any business.  There are two responses that you get when you ask for business; you get a ‘yes’, which is great and allows you to continue to build and grow with your contact; or you get a ‘no’, which either generally ends that association or gives you a reason to find a different solution.

When I look at the recent results of the secret shopper campaign I can only determine that there are a lot of people who should be good at sales who are not because they sit in the space of “don’t know”.

I would suggest if you don’t ask questions and don’t follow up, you will reside in the unsuccessful space of “don’t know”.  A ‘yes’ is great; a ‘no’ is disappointing; a “don’t know” is a waste of time.

There is a lot to be said for knowledge and experience in all areas of life.  It is only when you are faced with a consequence that knowledge and experience will be of benefit.  How much knowledge and experience does someone need to know the potential of a consequence?

Last weekend I heard a story regarding a new match official who was in a position of having to use knowledge and experience against a backdrop of potential consequences.  This was the situation.  It was this match official’s second game that he had refereed; it was the second half with approximately 20 minutes to go and the score was 12/10.  A scrum was packed and a player was left injured on the ground with an unknown but significant enough injury to stop the game on the basis that it could have been a serious neck or back injury. On to the field come well-meaning managers, who want to pick him up and take him out of play so the game can continue. The match official, who had recently attended a duty of care seminar, said that they were not to move him and that he would phone for an ambulance,  which he did, but the ambulance would be at least 20 minutes.  Do you move the player knowing the risk?  If there were no other players around you wouldn’t move him but there were cries of “let’s continue the game.”   The game was more important to the players than the player was. The managers started to move the player; the match official told them that if they physically moved the player that he would leave the ground.  Consequently he called off the game and left the ground.  The ambulance arrived; the player was taken to hospital for observation and it was discovered that he had sustained a back injury.

We all have a duty of care to not only know the circumstances but also the consequences.  When you make decisions based on a duty of care then the consequences will have far less exposure to risk.

The match official did the right thing, as he was the only one who showed a duty of care.  It is not only paramount in business but in all walks of life. The consequences of not respecting duty of care could have been quite dire for this particular player.