I recently stumbled across a 2009 CNBC news story that talked about trust in leadership. Specifically, it talked about how 40% of senior managers worldwide don't trust corporate leadership to navigate them out of the economic crisis and 46% of these same senior managers were unsure of their leaders ability to carry out a plan. These alarming statistics got me to thinking about trust in leadership in general and why it is so hard for some people (a.k.a. followers) to trust their leadership or leaders.
As I thought about it, I narrowed it down to three simple reasons which is the focus of this 3-part blog series.
Reason #1: Leaders Don’t “Walk the Walk”
How many times have you seen it, a so-called “leader” that over and over again inspires its followers through their personal passion, positivity, eloquent choices of words, phrases and language to describe what their vision is and how they intend to get to the promised land? It definitely can be exhilarating and make their followers stand up and cheer.
Unfortunately if a repeated lack of unyielding commitment and action doesn’t follow those awe inspiring words, that exhilaration is quickly lost and it becomes increasingly difficult to trust that leader going forward. A trusted leader simply cannot rely on their vision statement, personal passion, and inspiring words. Trust is not quantifiable; however, the actions of creating, preserving, and regaining trust require concrete processes.
In the end, a vision statement and all of those inspiring words are simply leaders trying to communicate to its legion of followers what they are trying to do.
To quote the almighty Yoda: “Do or Do Not. There is No Try."
Thoughts?
Next Week: Leaders Spin Too Much
Reflective of a very simple and long standing statement, "Actions speak louder than words".
ReplyDeleteStacy Kehren
Stacy, that is definitely another simple way of putting it. Thanks for reading my post.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with the sentiment of actions vs. words, I think it's more complicated than that. Since we are leaning on high quality axioms here, I'll throw in another: "The pen is mightier than the sword". Words can inspire and drive people to do things they never thought possible. So many examples form history: From Roosevelt's "Walk softly but carry a big stick" to JFK's "Ask not what your country can do for you" to any MLK Jr. to President Obama's "Audacity of hope." I would suggest that it is not the actions of these leaders but their rhetorical call to arms that made them great.
ReplyDeleteSo question back to you: is it the leader's job to take action or is it the leader's job to inspire action?
Interesting take, but I will disagree slightly. Each one of your examples also provided the actions or exhibited through their actions the very words that they used to inspire others. The only exception is Obama.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, a true leader inspires action through their words and their actions. Anyone can stand up and use eloquent words (i.e. talk the talk) to inspire action, but a true leader walks the walk and uses their actions to drill home their literary point.