Provision #703: Actions Matter
by Bob Tschannen-Moran
Laser Provision
Actions speak louder than words. There may be no more familiar mantra when it
comes to trust, integrity, and transparency. If we say one thing and do another,
people will remember what we do and forget what we say. Actions, especially
those that are repeated and reinforced, create a primary impression when it
comes to our character and commitments. Understanding this dynamic, leaders are
careful to align our words and actions. We also make sure that our actions
reflect our values. If we hope to empower our people, for example, then
micromanaging undercuts our leadership. Want to learn how to create such
alignment? Read on! It's a new Provision for a New Year.
LifeTrek Provision
After two editions of Provisions light, sent out over the holidays, it's good to
be back in the saddle with our series on those traits and qualities that make
for evocative leadership. What's that? It's leadership that inspires and calls
forth the greatness in people. It's leadership that enables people to find their
voice and realize their potential. It's leadership that evokes positivity,
willingness, creativity, collaboration, and engagement. When those qualities are
in the mix, peak performance is sure to follow.
We have a ways to go before we explore the fullness of that kind of leadership.
I started this series in March of 2010 with a Provision titled
Leadership 101.
With today's Provision, we're exactly half way through the series. How do I
know? Because I'm writing with a pattern in mind. It didn't start out that way;
the pattern just kind of emerged all on it's own. Can you figure out what the
pattern is? Take a look at the titles in the
Provision Archive and let me know what you think.
Last week's Provision on
Family Ties
evoked some emotional responses from a variety of readers, especially those who
have a sibling or relative with Down Syndrome in their own family. Many thanks
to Erika and her family for permission to post the poem on our website. I
have now also posted a picture of Van giving me a hug when we were together again
over the holidays in Ohio. I encourage you to click through, to look at the
picture, and to read the poem. Such hugs are infectious.
One longtime reader of Provisions responded to that poem at the start of 2011
with a reflection on his 10-year relationship with me through this email newsletter.
Perhaps because I have never met or worked with the man, who I think still lives in
Bogotá, Columbia, his kind and personal words touched me deeply. I share them with
you now as a segue into today's Provision, Actions Matter:
A new year has come for which I extend my best wishes to you and Megan.
Sometime this year I will have been subscribed to your Provisions for 10
years. Well over 500 moments to reflect upon life, love, relationships,
growth, health, needs, being whole and being part of something bigger. In
short: a wealth of light you have shone on what makes life so wonderful and
rich.
Through AvantGo, the Web, Skype and e-mail you have reached out. More than
that, through your Provisions, messages and conversations you have entered
the heart and helped me to reflect and embrace the beauty and wonder of
life.
A deep and sincere thank you for sharing the abundance. I am grateful for
the ones you have shared and curious for the ones to come. May you be
inspired for as long as you feel fit and enlightened with love and wisdom.
In gratitude, Chris.
Quite apart from how wonderful it feels to receive such an affirmation – such
words are, of course, the currency of my trade – it also struck me that Chris
took the time and effort to act upon his sentiments. He could have easily kept
those thoughts to himself, but he made an intentional decision to take action.
In a follow-up email, Chris wrote, "While Thanksgiving is not part of the
culture I grew up in, I have used the last one on reflecting upon what giving
thanks in its core means. And I have been working on making gratitude a more
integral part of my life. Gratitude for the blessings and particularly for the
people in my life. Please, feel free to reprint the email. Thank you for asking.
It is yours. That you may be inspired."
I have and I am. That's the kind of thing leaders do. We seek to align our
actions with our values. We intentionally work to express those values more
fully, consistently, and tangibly. We don't just talk a good talk, we walk a
good walk. To adapt a phrase from St. Francis of Assisi, great leaders get our
message across, using words if necessary.
All the words in the world do not matter much if we fail to take action. Another
saint, this time from the first century, Paul of Tarsus, picked up on that theme
to cast one of the most frequently quoted passages in the Christian New
Testament: "If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but do not love,
I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal" (1 Corinthians 13:1).
2,000 years later, those words still apply. Great leaders are great lovers. Our
people know that we care about them not just because we say that we care but
also because of how we treat them and because of how we go about our work.
Before the holidays I wrote a
Provision
about the importance of having a good attitude. I wrote about qualities such as
curiosity, purposefulness, confidence, and positivity. Such qualities, along
with love, distinguish great leaders from people who simply get things done.
That's because great leaders don't just give lip service to these qualities; we
incorporate them into our way of being and doing. It's not just what we say that
counts, it's how we get things done.
To be in that space takes commitment, intentionality, and practice. It doesn't
just happen by accident.
Commitment refers to the values we keep and claim. Every leader has values,
whether we can articulate them clearly or not. Want to know your values? Ask the
people who live and work with you. There's no way to hide our values from those
who know us best. They shine through our actions, whether we want them to or
not.
Intentionality, then, is central to aligning our actions with our values.
Everyone makes mistakes; everyone falls short of the mark. That doesn't stop
great leaders, however, from setting our sights on high marks. We claim the
best, life-giving values as our own and then intentionally seek to express those
values in all that we say and do.
Such intentionality makes repairing trust easier, if and when trust is broken.
People give us the benefit of the doubt when they know we mean well. "Meaning
well" is combination of commitment (life-giving values) and intentionality
(striving to live by those values). Great leaders apologize more quickly and
easily when lapses occur, precisely because of the broader canvas we have
painted over time.
Painting that canvas takes practice. When it comes to living our values as
leaders, there is nothing more important than practice. Our daily habits
reinforce our commitment and intentionality. I don't know of a great leader who
does not wrap his or her values with regular practices. Such practices often
include morning routines, which reinforce that commitment and set that
intentionality for the day, as well routines throughout the day that interrupt
performance momentum with at least brief periods of reflection and renewal.
Routines are reliable actions that define and develop our values. The two go
hand in hand. Without practices our values are little more than platitudes.
Without values our practices are little more than reactions. And people get in
trouble when we become reactive leaders. It takes proactivity to make leadership
work, especially proactivity that respects the feelings and needs of our
followers and colleagues.
Coaching Inquiries: What kind of leader are you? How would people describe your
leadership style? As proactive or reactive? How fully have you aligned your
words and actions? What is your intention in this regard? What practices might
assist you to come more fully into alignment? What would it take to do one of
those practices right now?
To reply to this Provision, use our
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talk with us about coaching or consulting services for yourself or your organization,
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LifeTrek Readers' Forum (selected feedback
from the past week)
Editor's Note: The LifeTrek Readers' Forum contains selections from the comments
and materials sent in each week by the readers of LifeTrek Provisions. They do
not necessarily reflect the perspective of LifeTrek Coaching International. To
submit your comment, use our Feedback Form or
Email Bob.
Happy New Year and Merry Christmas. I trust you had a great holiday season. I
enjoyed your last Provision, Family
Matters, with the poem. I have a nephew who has Down’s Syndrome and it really hit home.
Thanks for your last newsletter. I found your poem regarding
Family Ties and love to be very touching. Top
May you be filled with goodness, peace, and joy.
Bob Tschannen-Moran
President, LifeTrek Coaching International,
www.LifeTrekCoaching.com
CEO & Co-Founder, Center for School Transformation,
www.SchoolTransformation.com
Immediate Past President, International Association of Coaching,
www.CertifiedCoach.org
Author, Evocative Coaching: Transforming Schools One Conversation at a Time,
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