Workforce Trendsetters Can Be Role Models
Workforce trendsetters guide the way. Are you one of them?
The plastic miniature toy car that you glued together, the Barbie doll, or the not to scale balsa wood project, they’re all models. They are replicas with the intent to illustrate the real thing.
In the workplace there are many opportunities for models.
Data models may help us understand productivity, examine forecasts, or analyze accounting practices.
Scaled models may help the architect, serve as a prototype, or become a selling tool.
Organizational leaders are models too.
Workplace Role Models
Workforce trendsetters serve as a model. They model the behaviors, the actions, or the appropriate values and beliefs.
Attitudes help shape organizational culture and are illustrations of role modeling.
Dress code, language, and personal protective equipment might be role modeled.
Habits connected to neatness, cleanliness, or the management of waste can also serve as examples for modeled behavior.
It can go further, such as communication habits, preservation of confidentiality or the management of gossip.
Models are only a model though. They are an image or representation of the real thing.
Some are followed and replicated. Some should be, some shouldn’t be, and for some, the jury is still out.
Should you start a positive trend?
Workforce Trendsetters
Data matters, but is it valid and reliable?
What is supported, culturally? What are the values and beliefs as illustrated by the formal leaders?
Have you considered the flow, or the perception that appears to be celebrated by the masses, the sub-groups, or cliques?
It’s true for the dress code, for safety, and for organizational culture.
What gets modeled is visible and often replicated.
For what you do next, consider the model.
-DEG
Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.
