Executive Podcast #336: The Power of Consistency

Perry Holley:
Welcome to the Maxwell Leadership Executive Podcast where our goal is to help you increase your reputation as a leader, increase your ability to influence others, and increase your ability to fully engage your team to deliver remarkable results. Hi, I’m Perry Holley, a Maxwell Leadership facilitator and coach.

Chris Goede:
And I’m Chris Goede, executive vice president with Maxwell Leadership. Welcome and thank you for joining. Want to encourage you to go to MaxwellLeadership.com/Podcast. There you can click on this podcast and leave a note for us. You can leave a topic that maybe you’re struggling with as a leader or your team struggling with. And I do just want to pause for a minute and say thank you because I know there’s a lot of teams that actually take these podcasts. They listen to them probably on 2x speed, so you can get done within about 12 minutes. And then when they get together, they spend five to 10 minutes, man, what’d you learn? What was your number one takeaway? And just this morning, our executive team, we did the same thing with a different podcast, not one of ours, and we spent 30 minutes unpacking.

Chris Goede:
What does this look like for our team? What does this look like for you personally? And so, man, it’s a great way to just begin developing your team and I want to encourage you to do that with this. Well, today’s topic is the power of consistency. And man, I know I’ve heard you talk about this word. I know it’s one of your favorite words, words in leadership. And so I’m going to start us off with a quote that you have for us from coach John Wooden and then I’m going to let you run with it. Coach says this. He says consistency in high performance and production is a trademark of effective and successful organizations and those who lead them. Emotionalism destroys consistency.

Chris Goede:
Powerful statement right there. A leader who is ruled by emotions, whose temperament is mercurial, produces a team whose trademark is the roller coaster. Ups and downs in performance, unpredictability and undependability in effort and concentration. One day good, the next day bad.

Perry Holley:
It’s just a cycle. It’s a crazy cycle of driven by emotion. So where this came from was and why it’s one of my favorite words in leadership is so much of being written today around psychological safety and buy in. There is a team bought into you, the leader, and they’re watching you all the time. And if you are inconsistent in emotion, if you’re inconsistent in your behaviors, if you’re inconsistent, I don’t know what to expect. And so I began to hold back. And you know, when I’m on coaching calls, I was, when I was writing this up, I thought no one has ever on a coaching call told me I struggle with a cons. I’m just, I’ve struggled with consistency problem.

Perry Holley:
They never say that. What they say is I lost my temper, I screamed at someone, I was short with someone I didn’t listen before blasting away and all these types of things. So it does come down to emotion usually. But this is just a powerful trait for leaders to build trust, to establish expectations, to drive organizational success, engagement. And I thought we could talk about some of the ways that you could build consistency and why it’s important to your leadership.

Chris Goede:
Yeah. Before we do that, isn’t it true too? Like if you look at leaders that you have worked with and worked for, you’ve never said about that leader. I just, I wish that, I wish they weren’t so consistent. Right, right. Like think about that on the other side we, we asked the question, what does it look like to be on the other side of your leadership? And so what does it look like for you to be on the other side of someone’s leadership that is all over the place that is not consistent. And the other thing that I would say is then those that are on your team or your peers around you, leadership is contagious and it’s a visual sport. And like you said, they’re watching you the time. And so what a great way to model that for your peers and for your teams to be consistent in your leadership.

Perry Holley:
Yeah, I totally agree. And so why it’s really crucial for your leadership, is that it? And I already mentioned the word, but it’s it. Consistent leaders establish trust and credibility with others and that you’re predictable, you’re reliable, which helps build this trust with the team. I know what to expect when I’m with you. Your actions align with your words. It demonstrates not only integrity, but it reinforces your credibility. And so I just think in the opposite of that, like you’re saying, if you are not, you say let’s, let’s stay calm and then you lose it. I don’t know what to expect.

Perry Holley:
Yeah, your credibility’s lost. I don’t trust you.

Chris Goede:
Yeah, I love that. Number two man, if, if you can be consistent, I think you have a greater chance of setting and communicating clear expectations with the. I think they then begin to learn your rhythm as a leader. They understand then how you would prioritize tasks and behave in the workplace. They’re going to mirror that as well. And the clarity will empower employees to then run with things, to take initiatives, and to make decisions confidently, knowing that they’re acting in line with your leadership style. Because if it’s not consistent, they’re not sure if they make a decision today, depending on where you are leading from, from your temperament, that whether it’s going to be received well or not. I want to come back to this story real quick.

Chris Goede:
I’ve shared it on this podcast before, but in case you’re new, I want to share it and then encourage you to go back to episode number one and listen to all of the ones that Perry’s written since then. We have an organization that we work with and up on the C suite on the floor, the most influential individual on that floor happens to be the administrative assistant to the CEO. And so I got to asking questions, being curious, and I love influence. You don’t have to have a title 10 year. Why? And they go, yeah, no, no, it’s not complex. I was like, okay. They said it’s just simply that she has two different color coffee mugs and she lets us know by which color coffee mug is sitting out on the front of her desk what type of mood the CEO is in that day. And I thought, man, that is a tough place.

Chris Goede:
Tough place. And so they make decisions on what they’re going to talk about that day or whether they even approach him based on the color of the mug. So that would be in a situation where, man, they just don’t have clear expectations on what’s going to communicate, how to act, what decision to make, what not to make. So make sure that you understand that the power of consistency also will help create clear expectations.

Perry Holley:
Yeah, the power of consistency also adds to, I think, the organizational culture. We talked a lot about culture, but. And you just said it beautifully a minute ago. You said people are watching you. It’s leadership is a visual sport. And so if you’re acting inconsistent, you’re up and down, you’re all over the place. Actions don’t match words, emotions are in or out or high or low. People are going to model that and that’s going to become your culture.

Perry Holley:
So they’re watching you and your actions and attitudes are going to then permeate through the organization. So consistency is a culture builder, I believe.

Chris Goede:
Yeah, it is. Goes back to. Again, let me talk a little bit about common language leads to common beliefs, that leads to common behavior. Maybe if you struggle with this consistency, you start talking to yourself and saying, hey, I got to be more consistent. I gotta be more consistent. When you do that, you’re going to begin to believe that you’re becoming more consistent and then your behaviors are going to show up. And so that’s one of the ways that this can definitely impact the organizational culture is what is that common language around leadership and consistency?

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Chris Goede:
Well, number four is around goal achievement. And I think consistent leaders are more likely to achieve the goals that are in front of them because they stay focused. I think about the one that starts first and stays consistent, that over time ends up. You think about the compounding effect that plays out there and they can just stay on track even after the excitement wanes off, even after people, you know, change in different jobs. You can keep the same project, the same thing on task if you’re consistent with your people. And the goals that you will achieve will be far greater than if you’re not consistent.

Perry Holley:
And there’s another idea there about why it’s so important to be consistent. It reduces fear and uncertainty.

Chris Goede:
Yeah.

Perry Holley:
And when the leader is consistent in their approach, the team members feel it’s almost like I’m definitely feeling more secure in my role, but I’m also more empowered. I’m likely to take more of a risk, maybe step out and make my own decisions. I’m more likely to be more aggressive in my role because I know I can trust you. You’re not going to go off all over me. Your consistency breeds that, that level of trust. But enough about that. Let’s talk about time we have remaining about so how can I build consistency? Is that a skill I can build or a characteristic I can develop? What are your thoughts? Where should we start with that?

Chris Goede:
Yeah, I think the first thing we need to do is as we talk about in 360 degree leader, we talk about that us, you have to lead up and down and across. But you have to lead yourself really well which is the main part of this same thing with the five levels of leadership. And so where’s your self awareness around this? And you’ve got to develop your. Your self awareness and I think how self aware are you with emotions and then what triggers those emotions? Once you develop that, once you understand that then I think you become more intelligent on how you react in those moments in order to be consistent. I’ll share just a personal example real quick. And this is outside of work but even Sarah and I who have very high drive personalities and when we have a conversation that turns into a discussion and Chris is wrong which is most of the case. We all naturally have some type of cycle that we go into right. And and where it’s how you cope or it’s how your pain cycle or whatever that might be.

Chris Goede:
And so through a lot of work I became very self aware of when I begin to feel that what is it that’s triggering me in certain situations. And then you can be able to work through that and become consistent. Not all the times, not all the time. But I think that is what we’ve got to do as leaders is going okay, hey what situations when I was in with Perry or conversations or meetings or whatever it was that triggered me to do that we’re not going to be perfect but just making sure we’re becoming self aware and learn from what we’ve done in the past in order to become more consistent.

Perry Holley:
Another great thing you can do if you want to grow. I love the idea about self awareness and developing my emotional intelligence. If you really want to improve on that. I find feedback being the ultimate form is to get can you get some feedback. But I’m going to be a little more specific. Is most people when it comes to. To sensitive issues like this around your personality and your characteristics they’re not. I don’t find most people are willing to really share meaningful things with you.

Perry Holley:
So we talk a lot and John has the law of the inner circle. This is a miss for me in a. In my young leadership days. One that I would not dare approach anything without today to have an inner circle. And if you don’t know this term you should you definitely worth looking up and look at the law of the inner inner circle. But basically it says that I have some people in my life. One or two, maybe three that for me it’s three absolutely have my back that know me, that challenge me, that can tell me anything. And so if I have a concern about something I’ll ask for one of these three people to give me some feedback.

Perry Holley:
Can you tell me what happens when I enter the room? What’s it like to be on the other side of me? They want to know where I am, who I’m with, what I’m doing. They, they don’t mind holding me to account. And so when you have this, these people in your life that can tell you that this. Having a inner circle would be one of the key things you could do to help develop your personal consistency and saying how do my emotions come across?

Chris Goede:
Yeah. Another way to improve your self awareness and thus your consistency is just to practice being more vulnerable.

Perry Holley:
There’s that word again, there’s.

Chris Goede:
And that is a word that is showing up in leadership every day. And a lot of the inconsistent leaders that I’ve come around that we’ve seen is that they always want to be right and they use different tactics along the way to be right. Whether it’s raising their voice, whether it’s hitting the table, putting other people in their place, whatever it might be where they just want to have the answer and to be right. And so instead of doing that, what I would want you to do and encourage you to do is to put yourself in others situation, in other shoes and others place and learn to say, hey man, I don’t know, I messed up, I could use your help. What does this look like? And vulnerability 100% will help drive trust, that’s for sure.

Perry Holley:
The final one I was thinking of was practicing emotional regulation that manage your emotions effectively, especially in those challenging situations. As Chris said, can you identify your triggers? Do you know when it’s happening so you can capture that? John Maxwell says you either delay or display your emotions. And I thinking, boy, you can really build your consistency by learning how to delay your emotions. Somebody asked me the other day in a, when I was in a coaching situation, they said, well, is there ever a time you should display your emotions? I’m sure there probably are, but it’s. But it’s within a set of guardrails. Again, it’s on purpose, it’s intentional to, to drive a point to, to make somebody feel your energy. I don’t know. I had a consultant once asked me as I was being yelled at by a client who didn’t like something we did and we’re walking back to the car and the consultant asked me, she said do you ever get mad? I said would it help? I just don’t ever find that, you know, I was mad.

Perry Holley:
I actually was mad right then. I was mad that they were treating me that way, talking to me that way. But I just said I have the maturity and I practice this enough to say I can control that I can delay my emotions in this moment and then reap the benefit of that consistency even with that client. They thanked me later, said they came back and said I shouldn’t have talk to you that way. And I thought, peace, we’re good. Yeah, but I’d have blown up, it would have been no discussion further. So I agree.

Chris Goede:
I think whether it’s in decision making, I think whether it’s in your emotions, I think consistency of how you react in the moment is 100% a key to being successful no matter what you’re doing. I have a little 24 hour rule where if I get frustrated or I hear something or I want to react, I have a little self talk. Chris, this is probably not the best time for you to say X, Y and Z now. Sometimes it is, but because I’m naturally wired as a processor, it’s easier for me to go, let me think about that and I’m going to come back to it. Or even if someone’s very frustrated, very emotional with me and it’s like, hey, I hear you and I need some time to just think through this and then let’s reconnect whatever that conversation might be. But that’s my consistent way of handling it so that my emotions can stay consistent across the board. And so I just want to encourage you to do that. We also talk about how authenticity is so important as a leader.

Chris Goede:
And it is what we want to do is we want you to be authentic to who you are. And some of you go, well great, that means I can yell and scream and that’s the real me and that’s my consistency. That’s not what we’re saying in this situation as you’re leading and influencing other people. And so we do want you to be authentic with those that you’re leading, but do it in a way that’s respectful and that you can be consistent with over time. For me, it’s a 24 hour rule in a certain situation like that where I may feel my blood pressure raising or I may not know the answer or anything. And so however you need to go about doing that, think about and situations where you haven’t been as consistent as you possibly should have, maybe personally, maybe professionally, and figure out what was that trigger and then how do you put a learned behavior in place to be able then to come out on the other side of being consistent and my last thought is your title walks in the room before you do, I would also tell you this is that you know how people expect you to react. Whether you like it or not becomes your leadership style or your leadership brand. And that’s what you’re going to be known for.

Perry Holley:
That’s right.

Chris Goede:
That’s good. Do you want to be known for this hothead that is just on this roller coaster up and down, or do you want to be known for a leader that goes, you know what, we’re going to stay right here, we’re going to be consistent, we’re going to figure it out, whatever that might look like in the situation. So just keep those things in mind as you’re taking notes as you’re sharing these thoughts with your team, based off the content that Perry brought to us today.

Perry Holley:
Fantastic. Thank you. As a reminder, you can go to MaxwellLeadership.com/Podcast. You can learn more about our offerings, about other podcasts in our family as well as leave us a comment or a question there. We love hearing from you and very grateful you spend this time with us today. That’s all from the Maxwell Leadership Executive Podcast.

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