Consistency

"Most great leaders understand intuitively that consistency is an important part of leadership. That’s because the most effective leaders know that in order to be perceived as a strong leader they must maintain a strong set of values, live by a certain code of conduct, effectively communicate these to different constituencies, and then lead by example." Jeffrey Krames 


This quote by Jeffrey Krames is very profound. In my opinion, having a consistent leader makes life a lot easier in the workplace. I knew I wanted to write about consistency so when I searched for a quote about consistency, this one opened my eyes to other aspects of it.


My original premise was to discuss the consistency of personality.  I will use examples to demonstrate what I mean here.  


I had a former boss in the Navy who was very firm and often yelled.  His standards were high and he ensured he enforced them at every opportunity.  The image of our command was very important to him.  If we were away from work, he wanted to ensure we were on our best behavior and looked our best, because we worked for him.  At the time, I thought he was a real jerk.  Life was not easy working for him.  However, we knew what to expect every day. There were no surprises. Also, looking back, he was very competent at what he did and we were very successful. He was consistent and morale was relatively high.


I had another boss who was not consistent. When dealing with this person, you never knew what to expect; would it be Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde?  Sometimes this person would be so mean that it was quite intimidating. At other times, they would be the nicest person you would ever meet,and it would catch you off guard.  It was very difficult working for a person like this because you just did not know what to expect.  Sometimes life would be good and the work would flow and at other times life sucked and we struggled.  In this situation, we were not successful.  We would be hit and miss on inspections and our reputation was in the pits. Morale was low too.


The lesson I took out of this is the obvious one.  Be who you are all the time. It will really make a difference.


Going back to the quote above, maintaining a "strong set of values" goes a long way.  If you have a leader who consistently does this, you cannot have a better example.  I had one boss, who would falsify records to look good and pass inspections.  He did not garner much respect from me. That is one leadership example I made sure was not emulated.


Consistency is the key.  Do the right thing all the time.