One of the most important traits of a leader is reliability and consistency. People need to know what to expect from you. Behavior labeling is a simple way to increase the engagement levels on your team.
How Jeff Weiner at LinkedIn, Scott Belsky at Adobe, and Sarah Liebel used behavior labeling to lead with different approaches while keeping their teams grounded and engaged.
One of the most important traits of a leader is reliability and consistency. People need to know what to expect from you. If you're unpredictable or unreliable, it breeds toxicity. Yet great leadership is about building a toolkit of techniques and applying the right one at the right time. There's a real tension between using different approaches and being predictable to your team. Behavior labeling is a simple way to bridge that gap and increase engagement on your team.
When I was a product manager at LinkedIn, Jeff Weiner was the CEO. Even though he wasn't the founder, he certainly acted like one — and Reid Hoffman treated him like one. Jeff had strong opinions and was articulate and compelling. So when he said something in a meeting, entire plans and roadmaps sometimes got reprioritized. When he found out this was happening, he reflected, wrote a blog post, and addressed the whole company. He said most of the time he's just another opinion in the room. He loves products and will share his ideas, but team leads should treat them exactly as they would anybody else's. The second level was a nudge — he believed he had a sense for the right direction, but it was still somebody else's decision. He meant that, and he wanted them to lead and learn. The third level was an executive mandate. He would use that sparingly, only when he had outsize context, prior experience, or there was serious risk or reward involved. He also promised to make it clear in every meeting which mode he was in. If he didn't, it was your job to ask. He told the company that's how he would operate from that point on. It had a huge positive impact — he could use different approaches and people always knew what to expect.
Similarly, Scott Belsky (Chief Strategy Officer and EVP of Design at Adobe) recently spoke at the Cornell Product and Tech Leadership Program I helped run. He discussed how he handles design reviews. In most situations, he gives teams the leeway and autonomy to make their own calls. But some projects cut across products, or have a level of risk where they have to nail it. In those situations, Scott tells the team he's holding himself personally accountable for that product execution — he'll be involved, in the details, and at times driving the direction. Sounds a lot like founder mode, right? Yes, but not everywhere, all the time, just because. It's applied surgically where it's appropriate, and it's telegraphed so people know when he's in that mode and when he's not.
One final example is Sarah Liebel. Sarah is an entrepreneurial operator who has helped scale two companies from early growth stage through IPO. She shared with me that she has three modes: curiosity mode, conviction mode, and commander's intent. She tells her teams which mode she's in so they know what to expect. In curiosity mode, she's going to ask a ton of questions — but it's not challenging, it's clarifying so she can understand the full context. Then she moves into conviction mode, and if necessary leverages commander's intent to push something forward.
Labeling your behaviors helps both you and your team. For your own psychology, you don't have to be in conviction mode all the time. It's fine to be in curiosity mode, but you may need to timebox that — say, in two weeks I'll have enough context to shift into conviction mode. For your team, when you share how you're operating and why, it's a powerful unlock. You'd be amazed how much energy people waste trying to read your mind and predict your behavior. Short-circuit that. Share your toolkit and tell them what to expect. It's easy, you can start today, and it does wonders.
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