Lead by example
Sarvadi wants employees to know he cares about them and wants to create a trusting work environment around him. In order for the message of a trusting corporate culture to permeate through your organization, you have to lead the charge by not just words but also actions.
“Leadership is always more communicated through example than it is through just discussion,” he says.
Which is where walking around after 5 p.m. to see who is still working comes into play. If he didn’t care about his employees and wanted them to fend for themselves, he’d walk right past the late-night worker, instead of inquiring if he or she needs help.
Or, he could chastise the worker for not finishing on time and bark orders. Neither would be effective in building a positive corporate culture.
“I just believe you get a lot more out of people when you lead out of authority instead of out of more of a power base liked you’d have in the military,” he says. “To me, the keys to being an effective leader are all about how you care about the people you are leading and how you develop that kind of influence. To me, it’s a set of skills that you learn and how to interact with people that develops that type of relationship.”
Sarvadi’s leadership style revolves around that kind of authority and developing relationships with people where they really want to follow and participate in whatever objectives have been set.
“That means that people are ready to storm the hill with you,” he says. “In order to get people in that kind of mode, what you have to do is develop personal influence with those people. The way you do that is develop a set of skills that involve how you connect to people. It’s really interpersonal skills — caring about people and respect for them as an individual and caring enough to tell them when they are doing things right and when they are doing things wrong. (It’s about) having the type of relationship that is trust-based where they learn over time that you really care about them and their success. When people know that, they participate at a different level.”
Sarvadi recommends thinking back to your past about someone to whom you gave over a significant level of authority.
“Power is something imposed on people, but authority is something people give you as a leader,” he says. “What you are looking for is situations where you said, ‘Hey, I am going to submit myself to that person’s authority.’ Then you answer the question ‘Why? Why was I willing to submit to that authority?’ What you are going to find out is those people in common had skills where they had developed personal influence with you.
“They were honest with you, they demonstrated they listened to you, they cared about you, they communicated with you in a way that was respectful and honest. Those are the things that make somebody really want to follow.”
Think about how those actions affected the level of personal influence that person had in your life and what made you want to follow that person up the mountain. Then, try to emulate those characteristics.
“It’s the little things,” he says. “Usually they are humble, they are kind, always respectful. They held you accountable but forgave you when you messed up. It was more of a learning thing. A lot of times, they were teaching you. They were willing to take the time to teach, not just correct.”
Don’t think about leadership as only getting up in front of people and talking. To build a trusting culture, the example you set is important.
“Although being able to communicate is really important, people are more about what you’re doing than what you’re saying,” he says. “It’s the integrity between what you say up there and what you are doing day-to-day that people pick up on and determine whether they could trust you or not.”
While leading by example will work its way down the organizational chart, so will your actions differing from your words. If you are preaching one thing and doing another, don’t fool yourself into thinking that no one is paying attention to you going through the motions. They are, and it’s hurting your credibility.
“Some of the things are as basic as listening skills,” he says. “But I always say listening is different than caring. A lot of times, people will listen just because that’s the polite thing to do. But, you know an individual can tell the difference between when you really care about what someone is saying and what their end objective is as opposed to just listening just to be polite.”
