One (or two depending on how you look at it) of the key behaviours to being a better leader is to communicate with ‘consistency and persistency’.
This means it’s not enough to say you have values. You must commit to them and live and breathe them every day. You can’t just talk about them when you’re on-boarding a new team member, you must review performance, decisions and behaviours against these values. It’s not enough to have your mission or purpose on your website or painted in 6ft tall letters on your office wall (these are great as reminders though) but you must communicate, act and exemplify your values, messages or mission regularly, clearly, persistently and consistently.
“The more I practice the luckier I get”
Gary Player – Golfer
Key messages
This quote from Gary Player is important because it reiterates the importance of ‘consistency and persistency’. It means never taking anything for granted and always seeking to improve. You must continue to practice, you must reiterate your key messages, you must explain what you are trying to achieve again and so that everyone understands.
This is not to contradict our previous advice in our Growth whitepaper. Albert Einstein once famously said: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” He was right. Is fear of doing something different holding you back? Are you running the business in exactly the same way you were when you started out? It could be time to review what’s worked and what’s not and make some changes.
Leadership in times of crisis
The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the world of business. Now more than ever there is a need for strong, clear, decisive leadership to lead organisations through the crisis. The most important skill in a crisis is the ability to adapt quickly. Your first response might not be your final response, and strategies may change along the way. That is fine. You can’t be tunnel-visioned: if things change, you should too. Good examples include schools, gyms, and yoga studios moving to online classes or restaurants changing to delivery-only. Remote working is also not to be feared. Social distancing has made it all but inevitable, but any lingering worries about employee engagement are unfounded. ADP Research Institute found some of the most engaged employees work remotely 80% of the time.
There’s a whitepaper waiting for you
This blog is an excerpt of our free whitepaper ‘Growing as a leader’. Follow the ‘Download our free Leadership whitepaper‘ link below to download it, and learn how to become a better leader.
