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A Leader Is Always “On”
By Dr. Karen Otazo
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Actors about to go onstage have their dressing
rooms. Stars preparing to appear on a talk show
wait in a place called the “green room,”
composing themselves for their performance. It’s
amazing to watch the transformation when they
walk onto the set. They turn on like a light as
they become their characters or assume their
public personae. Their high energy generates a
mood that captures the audience.
Good leaders do the same thing when appearing in front of
an audience, using their words, facial
expressions, and even bodies to convey that they
are in control, inspired, and in a positive
frame of mind. However, when you are a leader,
your audience is an all-day-one – every
follower, contact, and client with whom you
work, right down to your company driver.
Highly visible, you set the tone for your team
or organization. Others take their lead from
you, looking for reassurance that everything is
on course, and for encouragement to drive things
forward. Tempting as it may be, you can’t slip
out of your leader role until you are in your
office, home, or hotel room.
What do we mean by the leader role? What traits or
characteristics do you need to display? Well, by
the time you reach leadership level, others will
expect maturity in approach and thoughtfulness
in outlook from you, as well as a positive
belief in your organization or team and its
capabilities. This means always projecting a
can-do attitude and doing your beat not to show
anger or disappointment, no matter how
challenging the situation.
This scenario is an ideal. Although you should work toward
it, you are human. You will have moments of
doubt, uncertainty, or negativity when problems
occur and events take a troubling turn. Being
“on” certainly doesn’t mean that you always feel
positive. But you manage your negativity. Once
you’re in your office, offstage, behind closed
doors, you can heave a sigh or punch a cushion
or two. But then you need to put your negativity
aside and think about the way forward. The
longer you spend thinking about what went wrong
or who did what wrong, the less you will look at
solutions.
Being “on” is not about denying that there are problems.
Nor is it about deceiving people. It’s about
ensuring that your staff works in an environment
that’s as secure and positive as possible to
keep them focused, energized, and on-task. This
means that when times are tough, maintaining
your positive leader role is more important than
ever. However, this role needs to be delivered
with clarity and honesty. Once a business
problem occurs, present the facts as soon as
possible to those who need to know—those who may
feel the consequences—but just the facts, free
of emotion and fear. Before you present them,
make sure that you’ve taken the time to compose
yourself and to think about some possible steps
forward. That way, the overall agenda is
presented as a challenge, not a problem or
disaster, steering people toward thinking and
working their way back to firmer ground.
Your apparent state of mind has a major impact on your
staff and teammates. Slipping out of role not
only affects their faith in your current
strategy or the business as a whole, but it also
affects their attitude toward you. Public
moments of anger or sarcasm toward staff, or
doubt, negativity, or panic about business
initiatives can weaken people’s confidence in
your ability to keep the organizational ship on
course. You will have forever changed in the
eyes of your audience. It’s a bit like seeing
Santa Claus curse; once the mask has fallen,
however briefly, it’s almost impossible for the
magic to return.
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One of the quickest ways to develop
leadership skills is through company sponsored leadership
development programs. These programs are often offered by some
of industry's largest corporations and are designed to take
individuals interested in developing their leadership 
