Be a Man of Action in the Workplace

All men feel the pull to be a man of action, a hero. As kids, we imagined acting out that role—maybe as a superhero or a cowboy. It was play, and as we got older this fantasy faded away into us, but it didn’t completely go away. We’d all still like to think we’d be a stand-up guy of action if needed. We’d like to think we’d stand up against a workplace monster.

Still, for the vast majority of us being a man of action doesn’t mean acting like a character in a Bruce Willis movie. It means being aware and ready to act with professionalism and integrity. In our day-to-day office lives there are plenty of opportunities to do the heroic thing—even if they are simple things.

Almost without exception, whatever your position in the office, you’re a leader to someone. If that person needs help with a project—give it. If that person needs help dealing with a difficult colleague—provide it, as a mentor or as a mediator. If that person needs help dealing with a workplace monster—an abusive manager—you can be the one with the cojones to help. And if that person is struggling or failing or is himself a problem—you can be the one to try to set him straight, encouraging him to get his own workaday life in order. All of these actions, in their different ways, take courage. They are also part of your responsibility as a leader.

A leader is aware. He notices when a colleague suddenly becomes disengaged or sullen; he’ll sense when something’s wrong. It might be something personal, in which case it’s none of your business unless he or she chooses to confide in you. But often it has something to do with work. Friendly, subtle inquiries might identify the problem—and maybe, if you’re more experienced in the workplace, you can provide the solution; it can be as easy as making sure that person feels a part of the team.

The biggest complaint in many offices is that employees feel there is a lack of communication between management and staff (and sometimes between different departments within a company). They feel they don’t know what’s going on, that their insights and opinions don’t count, and that their efforts are being squandered. That’s when a team starts to fall apart. Greg Stube, a Special Forces sergeant, and a true American hero, told me, “When I was on Green Beret A-Teams, I found it was important not to engender the perception that leaders don’t care about those under them. A great way to involve everyone and to foster an environment of full participation and information-sharing is to involve everyone in the planning process. If it isn’t practical or possible to have all present during planning sessions, then rapid information dissemination should be made a priority. Don’t forget that attitudes go south when people are treated like they don’t matter. No communication, no team.”

In business, a man of action, a leader, a hero, is a team-builder, because business is a group endeavor. Tapping people’s differing talents, encouraging them to take the initiative and take ownership of projects, is heroic leadership, and brings success. “I think this is why free peoples produce greater armies,” Stube told me. “We are used to thinking for ourselves.” But discipline and hierarchy are important too, he added. “When we also learn to respect orders and our leadership, we become the best we can be. We become thinking parts of the whole. We share our ideas and what we see up and down the chain of command because we are all respected parts of the team. As professionals, we know what to share or to bother the team with and what to keep to ourselves. We know when to keep our mouths shut but also aren’t afraid to speak up. That’s a hard dichotomy for many to understand—and it might be impossible for someone from an authoritarian state to comprehend. America fosters inquisitive, creative minds; when these men and women also find the discipline to use their creativity and free spirits they can be almost unstoppable. The key to team leadership and execution is fostering and funneling that leadership in the chosen direction according to a plan. This is why often great leadership means getting out of the way.”

It is necessary to inspire and protect your people, but what if you are the member of the team who is being abused, what if it is your boss who is the problem? Many men put their heads down and trudge on, because that’s what our fathers and our coaches taught us—and guess what? They were right. That’s often the admirable and right thing to do. Stoicism is an effective response to a lot of adversity. If a boss is treating you badly, it might because of other issues, happening far above your pay grade—and if something is beyond your control, the rational response is not the try to control it; the manly response is to grit it out.

But, of course, there are times when you need to respond—especially if you think you are being asked to take unethical, or even illegal, actions. It’s one thing to quietly endure the normal vicissitudes of business and of a demanding, difficult, or even disrespectful boss, it’s quite another to violate your own code of good and decent behavior. If someone asks you do that—you have to say no; and if you can’t change the culture where you are, it’s time to look for another job.