When Leaders Do Not Walk The Talk

Do as I say not as I do. Have you ever seen this leadership approach? How frustrating is it when leadership does not “walk the talk”? In my experience, leaders who have this approach are extremely hard to follow. Leaders that “walk the talk” set the example and can be emulated. The first example which comes to mind is when I attended a class. Lunch ran a little long and we were minutes from being late. In my company was a Full Bird Colonel. There were two options one was to walk in a couple of minutes late or take of running to be a couple minutes early. The Colonel took off running and the enlisted followed suite. This “walk the talk” approach set the examples of behavior which should be followed.
So how can I develop the “walk the talk” behavior? The first all members should do it develop our core value. Yes, most can regurgitate the core values during a promotion board, but one must embrace and adopt integrity as their way of life. Do not just give integrity (and the other core values) lip service. Embrace and let
There are some areas that challenge the best leaders and their integrity. The first which is prevalent is accountability. For this topic I am not discussing personal accountability but making others accountable. If you spend enough time personally reflecting you will discover areas which you could improve. Items that are deficient, we seek to improve. In the same way supervisors should hold their subordinates accountable. It is difficult to have conversations where correcting someone’s actions is topic of discussion. I have seen supervisors sugar coat topics numerous times. The problem with the sugar coat, is the subordinate does not feel the urgency to correct their actions. At no time did I say leaders should not be empathetic and compassionate about their subordinates area for improvement, however at the end of the day we owe it to our followers to let them know how to