Look the Part or Be the Part

Have you ever thought, “This is not what I asked for,” I certainly have. It was my

second duty assignment as a military officer. I asked for the warm sunny beaches of

Hawaii and somehow ended up in Alaska. I thought to myself, “Who did I make mad?

There was no room for challenge, so off I prepared to go. Before I left, a friend of mine

offered to sell me a pair of snow skis telling me they would be a benefit for me in

Alaska, the land of snow. The skis my friend sold me were 203s with Ess Var racing

binders.

When I arrived at my new assignment, I took those skis and boots to my new

office and placed them in a hidden corner. My plan was to first learn how to ski since I

had never been on snow skis in my life. Water skiing was my forte, not snow skiing. My

thought was that it couldn’t be that hard. Boy, was I wrong!

Our unit Commander called for an offsite command and staff team building event

to be held at the Alyeska ski slopes. I let them know I had skis but had never been snow

skiing and they all laughed and said, “we’ll teach you.” The morning, we were loading

our skis and equipment, I came walking up with my 203s with Ess Var racing binders

and the guy loading the equipment said these words, “Yeah right, you have never been

skiing before,” and so the talk began.

We got to the slopes, donned our equipment and the last thing I remember

seeing was a black diamond as I turned left and fell down the face of a mountain. When

I rolled up at the bottom of the slope my Commander said, “You really don’t know how to

ski do you. We thought you did because you looked the part with those high-speed

skis.”

There are so many leaders who quite often “look the part”, but like me on the

slopes, come crashing down because they lack the level of knowledge, skills, and

abilities needed to lead well. In the realm of leadership, to “look the part” is so artificial,

empty, and destructive for the team; to be the part is true, authentic, genuine from the

inside out, and most constructive for the team. We make the choice every day as to

whether we will “look the part” or “be the part” compared to authentic leadership. Better

it is to be the part!