Everyone deserves to have a role model

The upcoming Homewood Leadership Weekend was envisioned as a platform for empowering student leaders and their organizations to succeed. Sessions on leadership styles, event planning, finance management and administrative organization are intended to impart useful, practical skills for success. The planned sessions overlook one key element of leadership: role modeling.

Leadership theory suggests that role modeling is an important element of leadership. In the Kouzes and Posner Leadership Challenge Model, “Model the Way” is the first of five exemplary practices. Being a role model through actions like fulfilling promises builds credibility and is any leader’s first step to earning respect, winning followers’ hearts and leading effectively.

When thinking about leadership development, the process of equipping future leaders with core competencies cannot be isolated from making positive role models available. Similar to how great leaders are inspired by mentors, emerging leaders are guided by role models. The absence of role models puts leaders in a precarious and vulnerable position due to the lack of reflective support.

A friend recently recounted a leadership experience at Hopkins that reflected how the best intentions can be distorted by the absence of good role models. When entering a new position, we naturally emulate those who have past experience in the same or similar positions. Even if guidelines exist, we often take “live” signals from our colleagues rather than refer to a “dead” static document.

The absence of role models puts leaders in a precarious and vulnerable position.

Many of us assume new positions with the energy that accompanies the excitement of a new start. Recognizing that this spirit is fragile and needs nurturing is critical. In the above narrative, enthusiasm was diluted by others who either strive for minimums or merely sell the illusion of meeting minimums. In the absence of role models, lowest common denominator leadership dominates.

Such scenarios are lamentable. While it is easy to question the passion or purpose of leaders we consider to be poor or mediocre, relative comparisons with the role models they have access to will show that these under-performing leaders are not extreme outliers but merely reflect a culture of mediocrity. This loss of potential is a shame.

This prompts the important question of why existing leaders do not portray themselves as role models. One answer is that current leaders simply do not know how. It is possible that poor leadership transitions in the past have created a culture where role modeling is lacking, propagating cycle after cycle of leaders who emulate the mediocrity of past generations.

It is also possible that current leaders prioritize other things. Competing priorities such as academics are good excuses to hold ourselves to lower standards. Social agreeableness and consensus building are similar barriers to role modeling, especially when role modeling positive outcomes departs from the majority. These realities are sad truths.

What then makes a good role model? This question is closely linked to what is involved in being a good leader. In order to avoid circular reasoning where good role models are good leaders and good leaders are good role models, I depart from the Leadership Challenge Model and suggest four approaches that leaders should integrate or at least consider:

First, leaders need to approach leadership with a “more than me” mentality. By broadening our perspectives on what is important and recognizing the diverse and multi-dimensional nature of life and being, leaders will develop empathy and can better access values-driven leadership.

Second, leaders need to remove self-entitlement. Many perceive leadership as positions that have been earned, a benefit deserved on the basis of seniority, success in a selection process or peer votes. This is dangerous and unhealthy. Leaders need to shift their focus outward and toward service.

Third, leaders need to remember that we are our choices. The responsibilities we undertake and the decisions we make are ours to own. Recognizing that we alone have chosen our journeys provides a reminder that we should strive for success in the tasks and challenges that accompany these journeys.

Fourth, leaders need to embrace achieving excellence together. No leader works independently of others; we have networks of peers who support us and who deserve our support in return. Celebrating collective achievements is uplifting, empowering and a source of pride and motivation.

A useful yardstick to assess our own leadership might be to ask what we expect our leaders to do before considering them inspiring and exemplary. I am constantly inspired and motivated by leaders around me who I deeply respect and admire. These role models push me not just to give my best as a leader but also to be a role model to others.

If only by challenging ourselves to role model a higher standard can we leave a legacy, achieve success and build our organizations on a stable foundation of growth. While the skills at the Homewood Leadership Weekend are a start, we must not forget that this campus deserves good leadership and that every potential leader deserves a good role model.

Tommy Koh is a sophomore psychology and political science double major from Singapore.