Your behaviour matters!
When I talk about ‘your behaviour matters’ on our courses, it is discussed in the context of values and how, when managing or leading others, we set the tone. If we ask everyone to clear the meeting room after meetings and then we walk out and leave coffee cups on the table, it matters. If we expect a clean desk policy in the office and leave our desk cluttered, it matters. If we allow dogs at work but not into meetings and your cute puppy gets to sit through a board meeting, it matters. The rot sets in and your values begin to erode.
Values require hard work and attention - all the time, until they become second nature and the norm. To work, they also require a culture in which you can be called out, when you stray off course.
Let’s take the last example from above and relate it to one of the organisations I led. We had a great policy of allowing dogs at work. We developed policies to support this, outlining the expected behaviour of the dog (and their owner). This included things like ensuring the dog was on a lead when going up or down stairs and clearing up any mess when out walking in the grounds. The joy of having dogs around the office was definitely worth any occasional accidents!
The dog policy was a reflection of the business. It was fast-paced, working environment within the veterinary profession. We loved pets.
Initially our companions were allowed anywhere, but over time, we introduced a policy that they shouldn’t be allowed into meeting rooms or meetings. This was possibly down to a few unfortunate incidents of dogs being on heat and causing a bit of a distraction during some critical decision-making meetings! Regardless of why, it was a change in policy and it meant that some dogs couldn’t come to the office on days when their owner would be in a meeting for a prolonged time. Some of the team were upset and inconvenienced but on the whole people understood why the change had been made.
That was until the Chair turned up one day with his (admittedly very cute) puppy and proceeded to take him into a Board meeting for the day. This was in a meeting room surrounded by glass, smack bang in the middle of the main office. Everyone could see the puppy and everyone had a comment to make about it.
Except those of us attending the meeting. The Chair was apologetic and said there had been a miscommunication at home - his partner was out for the day and unable to take the puppy. He thought the dog could easily come to the office. It was all very reasonable and understandable. I asked the Chair if he would like someone else in the office to look after the pup, but he wasn’t keen – there were some big dogs out there! I shrugged it off and our Board meeting went ahead.
What did that do? It was a rule, it got broken, what’s the big deal? Well, the big deal was it looked like ‘one rule for one and one rule for others’ – how many times have we heard that over the last 12 months as the country has navigated its way through Covid? By allowing this very obvious and symbolic breach of a rule, we began to undermine how we did things in the business. Did I do the right thing? Absolutely not. Should I have insisted that the dog wasn’t in the room? Yes. These things matter. They send signals and they are remembered.
As a Leader, your behaviour matters. The slow erosion of values through perceived very ‘minor’ infringements completely undermines what you and your business stand for. We should all think about that the next time we are tempted to ‘bend’ a rule - the longer term implications are really not worth it.