A short YouTube transcript of Chad Silverstein reflecting on leadership and the importance of leading by example. He uses a personal anecdote—being put up on a pull-up bar during an early-morning workout—to show that actions (modeling the way) leave stronger impressions than spoken descriptions or carefully written messages.
Chapters
Yes. I remember the practice with choice where Chet put me up on the pull up bar and asked me what my workouts were like when I was working out with him and the boys early in the morning during the week. And I remember the learning that came from that practice, which was really cool. About modeling the way. As leaders, we focus so much on saying the right thing or writing the right email, and we read it over, make ourselves nuts in our head, and, you know, at the end of the day, we have no clue how people are going to perceive our message. But there's one thing that people usually, you know, have clarity on is when they see you do something, and when they see you do it, you know, make no mistake about it, like, you're leading by example by modeling the way. And I could have told people that day, you know, what my workout was. But there's no question that if you asked any of them today, none of them will remember it. But if you ask them about the time when I had to get up on the pull up bar, they may not know exactly how many I got out, but they'll say in the 20s, they'll say it was a lot and it was a really good live example of modeling the way and showing everybody there that you shouldn't waste and put too much emphasis on what you're saying and really focus on what you're showing everybody every single day.