Thermometers sense the heat or cold in an area and react and reflect the temperature. Thermostats on the other hand sense the heat or cold in an area and react to change to the optimum temperature. In our personal lives and professional lives, we enter situations and circumstances where we can either reflect the situation or we can react and change the situation.
When we lead, we all have circumstances and situations around us that can affect the way we perform. A thermometer manager will sense the circumstances and reflect them in their decision making process and problem solving abilities. A thermostat manager will sense the circumstances, react to them and will make the circumstances what they need for them to be. The thermostat manager will place into action changes to correct bad circumstances and change the situation into a productive circumstance and not become a victim to the status quo.
Opinion is another factor that can show us whether we are leading as a thermometer or thermostat. If we are running our business based on what we think others want us to do or based on other's resulting opinions of us, we are just thermometers again. Thermostat managers see the right thing to do and enact it without regard to the popular opinion of the day or the favorable opinions of their staff. Input is valuable from all of our employees, but we can't be driving our decision making based on just getting favorable opinions from our employees. I once had a mentor that told me "A manager who is adored by all of their employees must really not be managing." I pretty much agree with that statement. In the average workplace, the decisions and changes that we have to make usually will not be popular with all involved.
Our reaction to day to day operations, strife, and difficulties is another thing that can bring out our thermostat or thermometer tendencies. A thermostat senses changes in an environment, but realizes that the change can occur over a range of acceptability. A thermometer changes with every slight variation. We need to realize that every person in our organization needs the freedom to operate within an acceptable range of performance. We cannot react to every slight variance and micromanage the performance of our staff. Most of our offices have very specialized, trained staff that are the experts at what they do everyday. We need to realize this and step back and allow them to do their job the way that they know how to do it. Micromanaging people is really a way of us telling our employees that "we don't trust them to do their job correctly." If we can't trust this person to work for us without our constant input, what are we stating about our abilities to hire trained people for the positions in our workplace?
So, to wrap things up, we need to be thermostat leaders in our work, not thermometer leaders. Lead by creating our optimum circumstances, by doing what is right, not necessarily popular, and react properly with our employees.