Good Leaders Walk the Talk…
I remember seeing this quote on the email signature of a HR manager that I formerly worked with and it really struck a chord with me. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” —Maya Angelou. As I’ve continued and expanded my leadership roles, I always try to remember that phrase and apply it to any situation. During new leadership training I always tell new managers that your employees are always watching you. Your actions and your behavior is always being monitored and discussed among your team. If you’re going to talk the talk be prepared to walk the walk.
As a leader I believe your team has certain expectations of you. Some of them include: expect that you treat each of them fairly, lead by example, you’re one of the team, open-minded, good listener, and you give them respect. One of the most important ones is do you walk the talk? Walk the talk is simply your actions matching your words and expectations you have of others. You can’t just speak the words, you need to follow them with actions. “It is essential that the leadership of the team be assessed along with the other criteria of team excellence. Such feedback is essential to the health and effectiveness of the team.” (Northouse, p.372)
I’ve experienced directors that held only certain team members accountable and have seen how it’s affected the team spirit and commitment among the group. “Leaders can reduce the effectiveness of their team by being unwilling to confront inadequate performance, diluting the team’s ability to perform by having too many priorities, and overestimating the positive aspects of team performance.” (Northouse, p. 372)Everyone including the leader, needs to follow the same set of rules and be held accountable. When they see that you don’t do the same things that are asked of them, or that certain staff members do things and get away with it while others are reprimanded, that creates mistrust and incohesiveness among the team.
I’ve seen directors make derogatory remarks to their staff and do things that normally would result in termination for others. It’s hard to relate to the organization’s mission statement when you feel like some of the top leaders aren’t living it. As I’ve had more time to observe and reflect on some of the things that I’ve seen, I’ve decided that I can only be responsible for my actions. I have to be true to me. I can’t answer for the behavior for the leaders above me. They have to answer for their actions. I will continue to do things the right way and will bring attention to things that I see that are wrong. Most of all at the end of the day, I will continue to walk the talk as some of other famous leaders have done that lived their life “practicing what they preached.”
References:
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice, 7th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
First off let me say that this was a very good piece of writing and that I now have a new email tag to add on Monday morning.
Focusing more on the content of your writing I have to say that having worked with and for leaders that seemed to have a dual set of standards it truly can be disheartening and absolutely impacts ones willingness to contribute to the over all team effort more than what one has to do to stay employed. Even more detrimental those type of leadership behaviors can “wear off on you” easily if you let them. Shortly after dealing with a leader that had probably the worst set of dual standards I’ve ever seen I was introduced(by another leader) to the Wooden leadership Pyramid and after reading and understanding its different elements I decided that it would be the basis for my leadership moving forward and that I would not set any standard for my team that I would not feel 100% comfortable with following at any time.
This was a great piece, I really connected with your mention of the fact that the behaviors of a leader are always being monitored and discussed by the team. The responsibility with leadership comes with this, and not all leaders take it as seriously as they should. On more than one occasion I’ve been disappointed by leaders who chose to treat employees differently behind closed doors. One of the managers I worked for in retail when I was in high school would pick favorites and call them into his office to “chill out” while the rest of the team was on the floor working hard. I believe he thought that this was their little secret, and that his small group of favorites would keep this between them and pretend they were addressing serious work. But my coworkers were mostly teenagers and they loved to brag. When it became clear to the entire team that our manager was choosing to let some of our team members get extra break time solely because he enjoyed talking with them, the drop in morale was immediate and palpable. Suddenly whenever one of us was called into his office, whether or not we were actually being given special treatment, we’d get sarcastic comments and dirty looks from those who were stuck outside assisting customers. Aside from the couple of people he really liked, everyone began to resent our manager because if we weren’t chosen as part of his special crew it was like a personal affront against us. By way of not inviting each of his with equal time and privilege he made it clear that some of us were more special/important to him than others and people became very negative towards him over this. After a while I got the feeling that even his chosen favorites began to dislike the special treatment because of the negativity they were receiving from other employees. Even though the extra paid break time was nice, it wasn’t worth it if it meant being treated poorly by their co-workers for the majority of the day. Overall what our manager felt was a harmless way for him to pass some time created a devastating impact on group morale and it was never resolved. I ended up moving onto a better paying position elsewhere a few months later and I never saw anything change. I feel this experience backs up your claim of how important it is for leaders to behave in a way that considers the way their employees will view them “behind their backs” so to speak.
I agree with your quote “That people forget what you say, forget what you did but will remember how you make them feel”. I believe that you are judged upon how you treat others. If a team leader treats their employees well and takes the time to create working relationships, their employees will hold the leader in a much higher regard rather than a leader that does not take time to build relationships. I also agree with you in the fact that employees are always watching their supervisors and in order to hold credibility, a leader’s actions must match their words. Larson and Lafesto (1989) outline eight characteristics associated with team excellence, one of them being standards of excellence. This relates to your situation where a leader needs to have set standards in place for all employees. “ Norms of conduct and standards of excellence need to be in place so that staff members feel pressure to preform at a high level” (Northouse, Page 370).
It is imperative that leadership holds the same set of standards for all employees or cliques will form. This will result in a team with several small groups within it. Not only will this hurt productivity but team members will question leadership if the same standards are not applied to all team members. I have seen this happen in the work place, where management over looks errors or sloppy work by some and when others do the same thing they get reprimanded. This results in employees questioning management for their actions and can ultimately result in reduced productivity and an unhappy staff. “The standards must be clear and concrete, and all team members must be required to perform to standard” (Larson and Lafesto, 1989). I found your statement that “employees are always watching you” to be particularly true. As a leader one must remember that they must set the standard that they want their employees to follow.
References:
Northouse, Peter G. (2015). Leadership: Theory and Practice, 7th Edition. Chapter 14.
Pennsylvania State University (2016) Psych 485: Leadership in work settings. Lesson 9.
I think this is a great phrase and one that I know I try to live by when I’m in a leadership position myself. When I worked as a call center supervisor for a time I would say to my representatives that I wanted them to be able to see me from time to time doing the same work that they did. I feel that by being able to do the same work they do it will remind me of the hard work they do each day. It also shows them that there is no task that I would not do for the success of the team and for them to ensure we made our goals. By not acting superior it allowed me to have a great relationship with my team and kept me grounded in my past roots to allow me to help them grow as employees.