Managers As Mentors, 3rd Edition

Invitation # 1: Dynamic modeling

“Leaders are much more powerful role models when they learn than when they teach,” says Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter. There is no more effective teaching technique than personal example. If you are inviting the protégé to take risks and you also engage in risk taking, you are communicating acceptance. Courage hidden will join courage displayed. Remember our analogy of courage being like a shy child at a party? A public request by the host of the party for all shy children to join in the fun is not likely to invoke participation. But, if another child makes a private, personal but determined invitation, the outcome will be completely different.

The modeling of courage needs to be dynamic, ...