... To Walk The Talk

 I can't hear what you say because what you do drowns out your words

You may not have heard of Cory Booker (@corybooker) but he will probably be the second black President of the United States of America, and is currently the Senator for New Jersey, having been Mayor of Newark. I heard him speak at a leadership conference in Chicago in 2011. He told us how he deliberately chose to live in a very rough housing estate, & continued to do so even once elected Mayor. He had asked for the support of an elderly lady who had lived in this rough neighborhood all her life and who was the superintendent of the estate. He thought he had all the solutions and so asked her to help bring about the change he envisaged. She refused to help him, saying “Before you tell me what you teach and preach, show me how you live and give”.  

If you want to earn the right to lead others in your organisation then you need to walk the talk.

Another phrase of Cory’s is “I can’t hear what you say because what you do drowns out your words”. You see, when you are a leader people are always watching you, what you do, what you say, what you send/post/upload, how you spend your time, who you talk to in a room, how you dress, the way you walk around the place, the jokes you make. And they make a judgement. Do I trust this person enough to let them lead me? Trust them enough to follow their lead, to go out of my way to help them get things done, to put in the extra hours if necessary, to help make their vision a reality, and for their vision to become my vision?