Congruency in Leadership
The leadership model develop by L. Michael Hall Ph.D. is a detailed and measurable model of leadership consisting of seven criteria based on studies of successful leaders.
This article will explain the third of these criteria, Congruency, in detail and describe specific steps you can implement to improve your own leadership.
What is Congruency?
Congruency is the quality or condition of the quality or state of agreeing or corresponding.
Whilst we may be able to tell our children “do as I say, not as I do” this is hardly going to work with adults and certainly won’t inspire confidence in you or your ability to lead.
In relation to leadership, congruency is about applying our stated principles and beliefs to ourselves first, before expecting others to follow.
Key Questions for Congruent Leadership
The following key questions will help you to apply this criteria in practice to become a great leader.
Does you apply your beliefs and principles to yourself?
If your focus is outward, criticizing others and pointing out how they are falling short, then you might want to begin by looking closer to home. By consistently exploring how you can improve yourself and live up to your own standards you will continuously learn, develop and improve yourself and provide an example that others will aspire to emulate.
What are the indicators that you do?
One of the clearest indicators of congruence is eagerly inviting feedback from others and exploring it constructively when it is provided, which also includes actively seeking out coaching and mentoring. Having a good coach will assist you to regularly evaluate your own performance, obtain unbiased feedback and to set new goals for further improvement.
Am I aligned with my values and visions?
Ultimately only you really know if you are living your own values or if you are inwardly torn between your desired benchmarks and your actions.
Take the time to step back and look at how you act and ask yourself whether you are really proud of yourself and whether you are a good role model for others. This is the perfect opportunity to evaluate your own performance, to this point, take responsibility for your results and look for ways to learn and improve.
Do you walk the talk?
The ultimate test of congruency is whether others perceive you as consistently acting in line with your words. If you are unsure how well you are doing in this regard, just ask those around you!
Being a Congruent Leader
Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King inspired others by living lives clearly defined by their own rules and acting in accordance with their words. In other words, they ‘walked their talk’.
Do you consistently act in a manner which is congruent?
