Attitude Reflects Leadership - Gary Bertwistle

In the movie 'Remember the Titans' the Captain and Vice Captain of the now famous NFL football team, The Titans, are discussing their team. The Captain is disgruntled with the way the Vice Captain's team mates are contributing to the success of the team at practice. At that moment the Vice Captain looks to the Captain and says 'Attitude reflects leadership'.

To me, this sums up the basis for leadership. There is a lot being written and said about leaders having to inspire people to be the best they can be, to inspire people to do things they didn't think were possible, and to achieve their own personal and group goals. I concur with the sentiments of the thousands upon thousands of books and speeches that have been given along this premise.

However, my personal belief is that leadership starts from within the leader and the standards that the leader sets for themselves. Like anything, the attitude of the team is a direct reflection of the attitude of the leader, and the standards by which the leader holds themselves to.

When I'm speaking with corporations and groups you can pretty quickly draw an idea about the attitude that the team will have by spending time with the leader. The greatest leaders in the world have held themselves personally to a standard higher than anybody else could hold them to. They inspire people by setting their own standards, their own goals, and not settling for mediocrity.

A mediocre team is a reflection of mediocre leadership, and that mediocre leadership is a reflection of the standards and expectations the leader places on themselves. In the most simplistic version of this, if the leader is always 5 minutes late for meetings, and arrives dishevelled and disorganised, you can be guaranteed that the team knows its OK to turn up disorganised and always late. Attitude reflects leadership.

At the Talk Leadership seminar in March 2007, the Raise the Roof topic is about how leaders can set their own expectations in order to inspire those around them. Its as much a personal journey as it is a team journey.

Gary Bertwistle - January 2007

Comments

[Craig Killick]

Completely agree Gary. Too many sloping shoulders when it comes to performance and responsibility within organisations.

The team are the reflection of the Manager and that's the one area as a leader you can control.

I look forward to the Seminar.

[gary bertwistle]

Hi Craig,
Thanks for your note mate, look forward to catching up at Lords. Looks like a cracking line up of speakers. Going to be an outstanding day I think. Take care,
Gary

[kfehrman]

Just an FYI... Remember the Titans is not a movie about an NFL team, rather a coming together of racial cultures in a high school setting. I totally agree with your assessment of leadership though.