DO YOU
WALK YOUR TALK
IN BUSINESS?
You must walk the talk in business by backing up what you say with
actions. A simple exercise can set you on the path to doing so.
WORDS: STEFAN KAZAKIS
eaders who walk their talk realise transformation and build amazing
businesses. However, many leaders and managers say that they want
change and continuous improvement but fail to match their words with
actions. Imagine if there was a personal trainer in your facility who didn’t exercise,
smoked and ate junk food, while ‘selling’ the benefits of an active lifestyle: doesn’t
work, does it? If your values and beliefs are not congruent with your actions, and if
you’re not giving your team or your customers your best, why should they continue
to build their relationship with you?
You need to be the best you can be, and you also need to let your team and
customers know that you are. In my business, I don’t care about your experience
or your education or your background, I just want to know that you’re giving me
your all: if you give me 100 per cent, I’ll give you 100 per cent. You must walk
the talk by backing up what you say with actions. You must be congruent
with – and just behind – your identity. In other words, you are always in
the forward momentum.
To help establish if you are walking the talk, let’s take a look at
the Congruency Matrix (see table over page). I believe the top 1
per cent of business people succeed because they have the
attributes shown in the table. The key here i