It’s always been true that actions speak louder than words.

If a business leader says one thing and behaves in a different way, then employees pick up these different signals and behave accordingly—usually to the behaviour that was not wanted.

In the Enron case, the tone at the top was to drive turnover and apparent profit. Rewards were given to those who achieved this, with little regard to the consequences.

The incentives given to bankers to engage in ever more creative forms of deal making have been highlighted. The senior executives have been rewarded handsomely for creating a culture where growth in turnover and profit were the goals and the fundamental solidity of the transaction was ignored.

While most people are never involved in such large and obvious cases of bad management, leaders still need to Walk the Talk. A few examples can illustrate this point.

If the boss arrives late in the office, has long lunches and leaves early, this sends a clear message to the organisation. If the boss abuses internal systems (like over doing his/her expenses), this becomes known to the staff and starts to become the normal behaviour. How often have you seen staff change from trying to do the maximum possible to doing only the minimum acceptable? The change in behaviour is wholly due to the attitude of management.

So what does walking the talk mean?

Here are some examples that come to mind.

¨       Arrive early in the day (there is often a different culture in a workplace before the boss arrives)

¨       Support staff by creating the right environment and providing adequate resources for them to flourish

¨       Keep staff in the picture about the state of the business (without frightening them or compromising commercial issues), particularly when times are tough.

¨       Leaders should be prepared to do anything in times of difficulty. For example, if many staff are working late to meet an important deadline, then the boss should be there too. If the boss has finished all the serious work that needs doing but the staff are still working, then the boss should make the tea/organise pizza deliveries or whatever to support the staff

¨       Don’t interfere. Remember the difference between management and interference. There is one “f” in interference and no f in management