Imagine you need to speak to a crowd without a microphone. It’s difficult. You must project your voice. You may have to yell to be heard in the back. You may have a hard time even getting everyone’s attention. You may have to wave your arms in the air or give an ear-splitting whistle.

Then, if you are lucky, a humble A/V technician wanders up to the front and mercifully hands you a mic. You would stop yelling, wouldn’t you? Imagine how terrible it would be if you had a mic, and acted like you didn’t. That would be a disaster. You’d lose your audience for certain.

A leadership title is a microphone. A title doesn’t make you a leader, any more than a microphone makes you a good public speaker. But it definitely amplifies.

A leader without a title

We’ve all heard it said that a title doesn’t make you a leader. That’s true. I believe in servant leadership. I believe that investing in others, making them successful, and helping people work together to achieve big goals makes you a leader. None of these activities or attributes require a title.

Everyone that is destined for a formal leadership position starts without one. Before you lead formally, you demonstrate your ability to lead informally. That’s great. It’s sort of like speaking without a microphone. Sometimes, leaders need to compensate for the lack of an official title by being assertive, persuasive, and driven.

You are effective. You are convincing. You are esteemed by everyone. Then, someone hands you a shiny new fancy leadership title. What happens next?

A leader with a title

At this point, I’d like each of my readers to learn from my mistake. Guess what I did when I got the title? I didn’t change a thing! Yep. Someone gracefully gave my tired voice a microphone, and I kept on yelling. Of course, I was completely oblivious to any consequences of that, but I learned in a hurry.

For my math nerds out there, here’s how it works:

• Assertiveness + no title = good leadership
• Gentleness + title = good leadership
• Assertiveness + title = aggressive and intimidating leadership

Learn to moderate

The same people who found me compelling without a title, now found me intimidating with a title. I picked up on that and moderated my tone considerably.

Now, I pay attention. If I’m in a room with my peers or superiors, it’s completely fine for me to speak assertively. If I have the biggest title in the room, I need to be very careful. I need to speak very gently because I know that the hot microphone I’m wearing is blaring everything I say on the loudspeaker.

Your turn

If you’ve received a leadership title for the first time, or if you’ve been recently promoted to a fancier leadership title, this article is for you. Pay attention and moderate your tone based on your audience. Out of an inner sense of humility, you may think your voice doesn’t carry much, but I promise you, if you’ve got a title, it definitely does. You don’t need to compensate anymore.

This entire article is about good leaders. I love good leaders. We need more of them. We need more of them in bigger titles. I hope this helps you all be more effective.

Now, you probably all know some bad leaders. What happens if you give a bad leader a microphone? Well, I think we’ve all seen how that goes down. Just think about the last wedding reception you went to when it came time for the crazy uncle to make a toast.

Happy Friday, ZoL readers. If you enjoyed this article, please share it with your colleagues!

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