My company had our Xmas party on Wednesday and I was one of the organizing committees (only 3 or 4 people worked). Very tiring…everything was last minute. Fortunately, few people came to help us. Those few people include 3 of our top management people.

Do they have to help us? Nope, they don’t have to and if you’re saying others are busy, then you are wrong too. The top management people are very busy too. That’s why I’m very grateful for their help.

These leaders are willing to put down their ego and help us to move tables, clean the desks, etc. They did not ask us to do it even though its our job – the committee’s job. They took the initiatives before we even started. They led by example.

In fact, there are other leaders out there who lead by example. Leaders who are willing to cut their salary by 20% or 50% in order to help the company to cut cost or those who are willing to give up their spacious room in order to make space for other staff.

Why? Because they are sincere and they know that in order to convince others to follow, they need to lead by example. They need to walk the talk. A leader who keeps insisting on cutting cost, but he himself is not doing that…is not going to gain support from others especially those who are supposed to follow his lead.

If you want people to do something, the best way is to do it first yourself.

But how many leaders actually realize this? Quite a few. And how many actually practice it? Not much, I must say.