Consistency in Leadership

Posted on June 17, 2020 by Mike Weaver, One of Thousands of Leadership Coaches on Noomii.

As consistency relates to management and leadership, I mean specifically displaying consistency in your behavior and your attitude.  Perhaps you have worked for a manager who was not consistent.  You never knew from one day to the next what mood your manager would show or how he/she would react.  When asking questions, you never knew if your manager would blow up in your face or give you some other unexpected reaction.  If you’ve ever worked for such a manager, I don’t have to tell you that you most likely avoided asking questions or approaching your manager for fear of their reaction.  Instead, you just didn’t ask or approach at all.  No one wins in that situation.  You don’t get the help you need and your manager doesn’t get the benefit of hearing and reacting to your question or concern.  Don’t be this type of manager.

Employees want to see consistency.  Employees want a leader who is approachable.  Employees want the security to know that when they ask a question, they are not going to receive an adverse reaction. Your attitude and your demeanor can’t be one thing on Monday and a different thing on Friday.  Certainly, we all have stress and we all have factors that influence our behavior; however, your mission as leader is to stay strong even when you may not feel like it yourself.  The consistency you show to your team will have a direct correlation to how they react to you.  If you feel like your team is not reacting to you in a positive manner or not as open with you as they should be, ask yourself the question, “does my team see a leader who is consistent, or do they see a leader that changes every day or even every hour?”

I assure you that if you work on consistency, you’ll see a huge improvement in the morale of your team.  Here are some quick suggestions to help you increase your level of consistency:

Always make sure you are clear about communicating your expectations.  Your communications should include what needs to be done; when it needs to be done; and how it should be done.  Try to cover all the bases clearly at the beginning and avoid too much back and forth and the appearance you are changing your mind and indecisive.

Almost every manager says they have “an open door policy” to encourage others to to check in with them; however, very few managers actually practice an open door policy.  It sounds good, but most managers give the appearance that they don’t really want to be bothered.  Don’t expect your team to voluntarily come visit you.  You may need to set an actual meeting and encourage open dialogue.  The more you do it, the more comfortable they will become.

When you do have to change course or change directions, make sure you explain to everyone why you have to change.  Don’t let the team find out about the change before hearing it from you.  Apologize for the aggravation if you need to and be humble enough to acknowledge that the team may be negatively impacted and that you understand their feelings.  Simply letting the team know you have new information that affects your decision will show everyone that you are reasonable and not indecisive.

Pay attention to what really triggers your emotions.  Is it certain personality types?  Is it your workload that stretches you too far? Do you simply not enjoy what you are doing and it shows?  Positively reacting to your trigger points will vary depending on what that trigger point is and I can help you with that; however, simply begin by trying to be aware of what sets off your triggers.
Its OK to tell your team what you need from them, both as a group and individually.  Trust me, they would much rather know what you need from them rather than guess what you need from them. Familiarity with you leads to consistency in behavior.

Remember, no one wants to work for a leader who is unpredictable.  Stand strong and be consistent during the storm.