My older brother is a great leader.  He has led the same organization for the last 30 years.  He has led them from very humble beginnings to become an organization of significant influence in their city.  He provides mentoring to other leaders across Canada and the US.  And, he speaks at numerous conferences and schools around the world.

He has been a profound mentor to me.

This year he and his wife were on sabbatical for a number of months.  He invited my wife and I to join them in Mexico to simply hang out for a while.  Which, or course, we did.  While we were together I asked my brother a simple question,

“So what are you plans for re-entering your world?”

His answer was very simple, yet incredibly profound:

“I need to be more of a thermostat than a thermometer.”

We got side-tracked and didn’t really dig into this, but I have since put some thought into his statement.  What he said is critically important for every leader to understand.

In order to process the leadership truth behind this metaphor we need to understand the inherent nature of both devices.  A thermometer measures the temperature and a thermostat controls the temperature.  Simple.

One is reactive.  The other is pro-active.  A thermometer reacts to the environment, a thermostat controls the environment.

A thermometer can only tell you what the temperature is currently.  A thermostat can be programmed to keep your home at whatever temperature you desire at any point in the day.  If you want it cooler at night you can set your thermostat to automatically reduce the temperature during sleeping hours.  If you want the temperature to lower during the day when everyone is at work or school you can do so.

You program the temperature you want into the thermostat and it will heat or cool in response to the weather outside.  If it’s hot outside the thermostat turns on the air-conditioning.  If it’s cold outside the thermostat turns on the furnace.

The thermostat is the brain of the entire HVAC system.  Without the input of the thermostat the system would not know what to do.

So, do you want to be the kind of leader who merely reacts to what’s going on around you like a thermometer?  I am sure we can all see that being a reactive leader will not lead your organization forward.

Any leader will tell you that the path of least resistance is always being reactive as opposed to being proactive.  It is more work to be proactive because the current coming against you demands your time and attention NOW.  The tyranny of the urgent is the bane of a leader’s life.

Mature leaders function like a thermostat though.  They plan for where they want their people, their organization, their customers and themselves to be.  Then they program the necessary steps to get there.  They take note of the current conditions and respond accordingly.  They are not the ones necessarily doing the work, but they ensure their team has what they need to do what needs to be done.

They recognize the critical importance of vision and strategy to ensure the organization is forward thinking, yet fully engaged in the day to day duties necessary to keep moving toward the goal.  They set the temperature for the organization.  They are the standard bearers for the mission, vision and values.  They are the ones who continue to instill in the DNA of the organization who they are, why they are here, and where they are going.

They work with their team to ensure an implementable, efficient, effective and excellent plan is in place and in play to move their team forward.  They mentor, motivate and measure their people.  Their people know they are valued, they know how they contribute to the strategy and vision, and they have been equipped with a measurement mechanism to know if they are doing a good job.

Mature leaders can react when they need to, but they understand their true strength is in being proactive.  Even thermostats function as thermometers, but they are far more than that.

Thermostats outplay thermometers all day long.  We definitely need more thermostat leaders.