Not everyone can claim to be a born leader. Even less a good leader in the eyes of his team. What distinguishes a good person from a bad leader? How can the GIVE model help you analyze and work on how others perceive you to succeed in your leadership?

If the position of leader is envied by many people, it is not a simple posture to hold. It is indeed sometimes difficult to maintain the motivation of an entire team at its peak while maintaining the objectives set.

Also to be an inspiring leader, it is necessary to be aware of the image reflected to your professional environment, to be authentic, to share your vision while remaining in line with the strategy and values of your company.

To conduct this analysis of your position as a leader and the influence you have on others, you can rely on a GIVE model, a simple to use tool that highlights 4 essential points that can impact your career and leadership.

This model, initiated by the Americans Dutton, Roberts & Bednar in 2010, is in fact an acronym composing the word “give”, the letters of which can be adapted according to the position, while keeping this notion of contribution to the other in its definition. For example, in terms of customer satisfaction/relationship, the acronym could mean Greet – greeting/welcoming; Inform – inform; Volonteer – commit; Engage – get involved.

We will focus here on its initial definition that we observe in a leadership context:

G – “Growing self” – Gain: continuous personal development and improvement, acquisition of new skills, etc.

I – “Integrated self” – Identity: coherence between private and professional life, adequacy with personal values, consistency between personality at work and in private life, alignment with oneself and not with stereotypes and other clichés dictated by society…

V – “Virtuous self” – Vertu: inspiring role model, mentor, kindness towards his collaborators, encouragement, active listening…

E – “Esteemed self” – Esteem: efforts and skills recognized by peers, respect from the professional environment in return for their behaviour, actions, management style, etc.

What use for GIVE?

The objective is to work on oneself in such a way as to have a good self-image and thus reflect a positive image to others. For individuals in need of trust, this can be a way to break the vicious circle of self-deprecation.

For the manager, this model thus serves as a basis for reflection on his posture. He keeps the 4 components of the model in mind so that the image he sends back to his team, his peers and his professional environment in general reflects his motivation and personality in a positive way. This will generate a positive mirror that will feed his self-confidence and in turn encourage open, caring and authentic behaviour towards his employees… The latter will then again reflect a positive image, etc. The virtuous circle has begun and all this contributes to strengthening the manager’s leadership.