Your behaviours are a form of communication

In yesterday’s post, I highlighted how the announcement of a top fund management firm that they will pay for their worldwide staff to commute by taxi (and that they must all avoid public transport) was in conflict with their professed leadership on ethical and impact investing.

In that post, I also reference an earlier post (one of the shortest I have written, also one of the most read): “how you do anything is how you do everything“, and yesterday I received the latest subscriber email from my friend Jeff Raker, that I share below. Succinct and powerful.

Jeff will be my guest on #WhatComesNextLive on November 10th. I look forward to our conversation and his wisdom. For now, his succinct thoughts on behaviour and communication:

Behaviour & Communication: Level Up Leadership Tips

from Jeff Raker’s subscriber email, September 8th 2020. For more, visit Level Up Leadership

A leader’s awareness that their behaviours are a form of communication may seem pedestrian, but it’s often difficult to see ourselves accurately. (Which is why I have a job)

The leader who is chronically late communicates……

The leader who gets emotional and loud more often than not communicates….

The leader who doesn’t acknowledge others with a simple, “Hello,” communicates…

Making assumptions about other people’s interpretations and motives is also not something human beings are great at, but we can surmise: “What would I think if someone did that to me?”

Let’s take the chronically late leader:

• Doesn’t care about his people
• He isn’t honoring of their time
• She does not value their time
• She cannot be trusted to follow through
• His word can’t be trusted

It can get serious quickly. In today’s pandemic world where we are on a heightened state of alertness more consistently than normal, we can rush through the details. It’s more important than ever (at least in a while) to stop, pause, and pay attention. Or remember the great saying: “Early is on time and on time is late.”