Book Extract

Why people leer at their leaders

Some people may doubt what you say, but they will always believe what you do.
— Anonymous

Parents understand the dilemma that inconsistency presents to their children. Thus, the saying, “Do as I say—not as I do.” Spouses who say “I love you” but fail to spend time with their mate end up in a divorce court. Celebrities who say that they appreciate their fans but never make themselves accessible to them eventually see their popularity wane.

Customers and employees experience the same disenchantment when they see inconsistencies in the workplace. As the old saying goes, you can’t not communicate—by words, action, or silence. You communicate by:

• The policies you enforce and the ones you ignore.
• The behavior you reward and the behavior you penalize.
• What you allow work time for and what you don’t.
• Where you spend your money and where you don’t.
• Where you spend your time and where you don’t
• The quality of the products and services you advertise and those you actually deliver.

As a leader, your challenge is to make sure everything syncs—what you say with what you do.

Inconsistent leaders

During a time of falling stock prices, a large telecommunications company ran a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal touting their customer support for their newest product. The headline on the ad emphasized how closely their software designers listened to what customers wanted.

A customer called the 800 number in the ad and got routed to nine different people and phone numbers through their automated system without ever talking to a live person. Finally, the voice mail of the ninth person referred the caller back to the original 800 number in the ad. A letter from the caller to the CEO suggested that inconsistency between their marketing hype and the day-to-day reality was the reason for the company’s falling stock prices. That letter became an example in the organization’s customer service training of “what not to do” in communicating to customers.

Individuals, too, have difficulty synching words and actions. For example,

• The manager who says he rewards people for outstanding performance—but then grants merit raises across the board at the same percentage.
• The manager who says she values employee suggestions—but fails to respond to them.
• The manager who espouses an open-door policy—but then beheads the bearer of bad news and terminates dissenters.
• The manager who says empowerment is the key to staying close to the customer—but then requires five approval signatures for a $500 refund.
• The executive who freezes raises because money is tight—but renovates the East Wing and adds an executive garage.

Double-check the details

Last spring, we hired a 23-year-old college graduate with a 3.5 GPA as an administrative assistant. Molly (name changed to protect the person) impressed us during the interview process and insisted that she really wanted the job in her field of communication. Because business and technical writing is part of our course offerings to corporate clients, we pointed out to her that all our employees need to proofread everything carefully when communicating with clients because they notice errors and sometimes like to play “gotcha”.

Molly proved to be a fast learner on all the software and procedures. Other than giving her a little help with punctuation, her supervisor considered Molly to be mastering the job quite well.

Imagine our surprise when Molly walked in on day nine and resigned; “I just don’t think this job is a good fit. Commas, semicolons, spelling, typos. Those kinds of things just aren’t all that important to me. They just don’t matter.”

If you sell shoes for a living, they probably don’t. But if you are a knowledge worker, words are the commerce of ideas.

As coworkers alternately laughed and lamented Molly’s comments and the wasted time in training her, I reflected on the bigger issue: the issue of attention to detail and commitment to accuracy in whatever work someone does.

Getting the right pills in the correct medicine bottle. Adding the passenger’s name to the correct flight reservation. Adding the parenthesis in the software code. Putting the proper lug nut on the car wheel.

So that’s what I asked about in the hair salon the following Saturday: Am I expecting too much for people to care about getting the job done right—that if we teach email writing, our administrative assistant handling registrations should know where the comma or semicolon goes on the form?

The stylists on duty agreed and had their own story to tell. A new-hire there had been working six weeks; on average, she had called in at least two days per week, saying she couldn’t make it in on time to meet her appointments for one reason or another.

The owner had had to cancel or shuffle all her clients to other stylists. Her tenure there was soon coming to an end for the same reasons—lack of commitment, inattention to detail.

My point is not punctuation, but attitude. Attention to detail reflects an attitude of quality, commitment, and consistency communicated to customers. When somebody says, “I am not a detail person,” I start to sweat.

You will rarely hear this statement from chief executives. They are always “a detail person.” The issue is which details merit their attention.

They dive for details—the significant details—because they know details can sink or save an enterprise.

Attention to detail creates an overall message—one that’s either consistent or not. And that message communicates volumes to others about the quality of work you expect from them.

Excerpt from ‘The Voice of Authority’ Dianna Booher. Reproduced with permission © 2007, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited. Price: Rs 350. E-mail: Vishwanath_Ghanekar@mcgraw-hill.com