"Eve - first woman and mother of human race. On the eve of international womens' day let me congratulate each one of you for your achievements and thank each one of you for your contributions to human race." I posted this in Facebook last evening. I do believe in my words. But are just these words enough ? Don't I need to demonstrate this in my actions ? Don't I need to do the "walk the talk" ? Yes, I should.
incident #1
Initial years of my career. That day I reached office much early, just like that. My work place was opposite to that hep conference room in that building. That room was a pampered mistress compared to the dull one in the ground floor, the neglected wife ! Usually some customer meeting or other would take place in that room. It looked like one was going to happen on that day too. Room was fully lit. Smell of room freshener was reaching even to my nostrils located much farther to the conference room. I got a sense that meeting was going to be a high profile one. Elaborate preparations were happening, that too much ahead of time. No doubt, it had to be a big one. Smell of Pizza, burgers and freshly brewed coffee was on the cards later. I immersed more into my customer emails, re-reading some of them!
Suddenly I noticed somebody in impeccable suit walking towards the conference room, alone. It was our chairman. He reached early for the meeting. He went in to the conference room. I saw all the lights going off in a fraction of a second. He came out, stood outside and started just looking around as he was waiting for others to come. There was nobody in the conference room. He did not want to waste the electricity by keeping all those 15 odd lights on.
I had read our chairman's communication to employees on many occasions. Punctuality and effective cost management were two key principles which used to appear in those communications. He was giving one message by his action in the above incident - "walk the talk".
Incident #2
Many years later. I was handling a US based customer account. I was planning to visit the customer location to review the progress on the account so far and future course of action, a week later. My boss called me and said "this time Vice Chairman (VC) is going to visit your customer next week, since you are also there, make sure that all meetings go well. By the way, he asked a small write up on the account, send him asap". I prepared a 2 page note and sent to VC.
Onsite manager and myself were waiting at the Milwaukee airport to receive the VC. The meetings with the customer was supposed to be the very next day. The flight got delayed and by the time he arrived it was almost 10:30 PM local time. "My check-in baggage did not arrive. It is fine let's move, I have given them the hotel address for forwarding as it arrives". As we were walking towards the car park, he said "I anticipate this always. No worries for me, I have kept one set of dress in my cabin baggage, so it really does not matter when they deliver it to my hotel". We stopped at a restaurant on the way to Hotel for dinner. We had a good dinner. Payment time came, "Don't worry, I will pay for this. It is easy for me to claim from the company than you guys ".
As we reached hotel it was close to 12 midnight. Meeting next day was at 9 AM and I was desperately looking to go to my room and sleep. "Is it possible for you guys to spend some time now, I need to quickly review with you as what we need to discuss in tomorrow's meetings" as VC was speaking he slowly picked up a write up from his coat ! I could easily make out, it was the two page note that I had sent to him ! We went over it in the lobby quickly for 15 minutes and then split.
Meetings went on well with many of the key customer managers. I meticulously noted down all points in the meeting. I knew I will be asked to send a report to all including VC this time. I was back in Bangalore in another few days time. It took more time to draft the report than I expected, I wanted it to be as near perfect as possible. While still I was on that job, I received a note from VC "please review this report. add if I have missed out anything". I was stunned. VC's report was much detailed and precise, it covered many more points that I had missed out while watching those customers speak !
We need to be leaders not managers. As leaders, we need to set as an example to others - This was one of the themes in VCs communications to us. VC was sending out the message loud and clear in the above incident - "walk the talk". VC was setting himself as an example as how a leader should behave.
Try to do the "walk the talk" as much as possible. You may only walk with no talk, that is fine. But try to avoid only talk, if you will not be able to walk that talk.
It is time for me to stop talking and get ready for my usual morning walk ! Have a happy weekend.
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