As a leader, whether you like it or not, the “spotlight” is
always on you.  The people you lead watch
you and they watch you closely.  They look
for signs of your attitude in driving new things.  They watch how you deal with bad news.  And they notice how or whether you fit in
with the culture of the organization.

Attitude.  Most would agree that
you can’t see attitude.  But I would say
that seeing evidence of it is good enough.
While under the spotlight, people will pass judgment on what they see
you doing. Are you working hard to find new ways to meet the challenges of the
market or the competition?  Are you
including others in key decision making processes?  Do you seem to have a positive outlook when speaking
about the future?  Are you seen as a “go
getter”?  Do you seem to care about both
the business and the people running it?
The answers will give others insight about your attitude.  That insight in many cases is based on
perception.  To those that you lead, perception
is reality and it is up to you to manage it.

Bad news.  How you deal with adversity will go a long way with your team to help them go “all-in”
for you or just go through the motions and collect that paycheck.  Do you get visibly angry?  Do you blame first and ask questions later?  Do you try to find ways out of it to make yourself look good?  If the
answer to any of these is “yes”, then you’ll only get to experience the
downside of bad news without the commitment of your team to help fix it.  Worse, you may not even find out about it
until it’s too late.  If you see bad news
as an opportunity to build a stronger team, then your outlook will generate
openness and effort in the ranks to support you in ways you could not have
imagined.

Culture.  Culture normally
refers to “how things are done here” or the “norms” of the organization.  I’d like to share an example of how culture changed
things for me.  When I arrived in Mexico,
I received some feedback from a trusted colleague.  He told me that I seemed to be “cold and
distant”.  I was surprised by this and
asked for more specifics on it.  He told
me that when people come up to talk to me, I would move away or lean back.  I couldn’t help but laugh at the thought of
it.  You see, in the US we have a
personal space barrier of about three or four feet.  It’s more than that in some countries and
less in others.  In Mexico, it turns out
to be less.  Learning that, I really had
to dig in my heels when speaking with someone to be sure I was aware of the “physical”
culture expectations in my new assignment.

Being in the spotlight is reality for leaders.  People watch for signs of your attitude, how
you deal with bad news and how you deal with the culture of the
organization.  Dealing with all three
productively will get you more of the results your looking for.