A good leader can set the tone for an entire project, or even a whole business. Their behavior sets expectations and standards for the rest of the team. As a leader, maintaining awareness of your behavior and ensuring that it stays consistent helps to stabilize the work and goals of the project.
Consistency is one of the key leadership qualities to focus and progress. Consistent behavior sets the bar for expectations from your team, your customers and your audience. It reinforces values and reaffirms that they are important to adhere to. It encourages work to happen, even little-by-little with the knowledge that the goal will be reached in the end, through steady progress. It lets people know what to expect from you, and once they know what they can expect, it allows a trust to grow.
Examining your behavior to ensure consistency takes some self-inspection. Do you follow through on the promises you make and do your actions match your words? Do you stand by your values and quality standards even when they are difficult to uphold? Do you set goals and timelines and then take the appropriate steps to ensure they are met?
Evaluating your behavior for consistency can be difficult, as it puts a magnifying glass on moments where decisions may have been made that sacrifice brand, trust, and values, often in the name of saving time or money, or simply finding an easier way to do something. It can expose forgotten promises and uncover moments of poor leadership.
However, to further develop as a leader, you must look at the weak points in your leadership qualities to improve them. Once you can see where inconsistency occurs in your behavior, you can identify the cause and work to solve the problem. The solution can be as simple as creating more reasonable goals or timelines, creating protocols for dealing with issues that arise in a way that quality is ensured, and values are upheld, paying attention to verbal promises and language, or aiming for better time management.
Consistency in your behavior must grow into a habit to be effective, but the way to start is by examining the point your behavior is at now, identifying where it needs to be and finding the actions and patterns you need to establish to give consistency the opportunity to take root and grow.
Are you looking for ways to keep making your behavior more consistent to grow your relationship with your team and audience?
Our program provides mid- to senior-level workers with insight into the strength of their influence and helps organizations develop future leadership. Reach out today to learn more about our assessment and how you can invest in your organization’s future.
