5 Times When Wearing Jeans Will Make You a Better Leader

By Jan Bowen-Nielson

And no, I’m not talking about Casual Friday.

When you think of a leader, what image pops into your head right away? For me, it’s a suit. It’s a fancy black jacket over a button-down tucked into sharply seamed trousers. Inspiring, right?

Luckily it doesn’t take long for my thoughts to shift toward the great leaders in my life: the adaptive, the decisive, the visionaries, and the sleep-deprived. They all have one thing in common.

Yep, it’s the denim. And it’s times like these that will make you a better leader:

1. When you’re scrubbing toilets

Being a leader means making sure that what has to be done gets done. This, you probably know. You might also know that being a leader often means doing the dirty work yourself. But shrugging this off as a fact of business or delegating the heavy lifting at every turn is missed opportunity to enrich your perspective. A great leader aims to see the big picture, and somewhere deep inside that big picture, there is always a toilet and always a person who scrubs it.

2. When you’re a farmer

Successful farmers have an amazing ability to adapt. At the whim of sun and storms, pests and plant diseases, limited daylight and an endless supply of uncontrollable factors, farmers have to adapt. They have to be patient, mindful, resourceful and always on top of their game. Talk about real-world business coaching.

In management, this kind of calm control is key to making smart decisions and maintaining perspective in the face of challenge.

3. When you’re playing sports

That’s right, in your jeans! Being a leader is fun, and in management positions too often we forget that. Leaders should not be afraid to play in the mud. Instead, create an environment where team members feel empowered and supported. This is where great product comes from.

4. When you’re painting a house

And painting it the right way. A house painter wouldn’t approach a wall, all chipped and crumbling, and just start lobbing paint at it--that would just be sloppy work. A house painter would scrape away all the loose chips, wipe the dust off the wall, and start with a clean surface. He would tape around the edges and lay a tarp down, put on a coat of primer, let it dry, and then he would paint the wall--and then he might paint it again!

Good leaders do the job right the first time, through and through. If you want your team to care about quality, well, who do you think they’ll look to to determine that quality standard?

5. When you’re partaking in Casual Friday

Gotcha! Come on, you know we all love Casual Friday. Everyone’s a bit more jolly, feeling a bit lighter, a bit friendlier. Casual Friday may not be the be-all-end-all of Leadership Training 101, but it does remind us of a simple fact, that we are people first and insert-role-here second.

Leadership training comes in all shapes and sizes. (Get it? Like jeans?) So don’t be afraid to find business coaching all around you. Great leaders are everywhere, and maybe they’re not wearing suits. Maybe they’re not even wearing jeans.

Maybe we should embody Casual Friday even in our finest garb...