What you see is what you get
Why reliability matters if you want to lead
It was quite a few years ago when I was working with an organisation undergoing a large cross-functional project. It was headed up by a leader who had a good operational reputation but hadn’t delivered on a scale as large at this or with such a high profile or consequences.
They structured the functionality of project really well. There were weekly project meetings when deadlines were set. The spreadsheets (this was pre-Monday) and updates were set out clearly and actually communicated very well. The leader had done a good job as a states-person for the project; reinforcing the plans and exuding calm.
But when the wheels got into motion, that sense of calm wasn’t quite the feeling amongst the project managers and people doing-the-doing.
Outside of the scheduled check-ins there was a constant drip of messages where the project lead was making direct requests for progress and making changes to the agreed deliverables. It wasn’t dramatic and they never shouted at the team. But the check ins started to make people thing “He doesn’t trust us to deliver this!”
Over time, the relaxed check-ins became urgent updates. Everything was urgent! There were reasonable deadlines on all the glossy board packs and updates but, behind the scens, the team were running to a completely different and wired schedule.
The questioning became inconsistent. When leaders alternate between strategic and tactical they can sometimes be labelled as “dynamic” but if you’re not sure which level your boss is likely to come at you from, it’s hard to know how to prepare your thoughts and whether to take action in fear you’re getting on the wrong end of their stick. Basically, I saw the project leads stop making decisions. It wasn’t worth it to make judgement calls or even to make recommendations. Because whatever call they made, the weather might have changed by the time the boss got sight of it.
Unpredictable leadership has an impact that’s bigger than morale and even retention. People can feel helpless. Imagine assembling a talented group of people who stop thinking for themselves because they feel they are bound to get it wrong? It’s inefficient and massively disappointing.
“I keep people on their toes”
This is difficult circumstance to coach a leader through. They might genuinely believe their own speeches and they may think they are being thorough. They think it’s great that they can dip into being “hands on” and “take a helicopter view” when needed.
But what leaders can’t always see is that their internal anxiety can be seen. And it can ooze out of them and into the day-to-day of the team.
Some leaders like to think they do this deliberately. That they like to “keep people on their toes”. In all my years of working with leadership teams, I’ve rarely seen that be the case. What I’ve seen instead is leaders who are unpredictable because of the pressure from above, a fear of failure or their need for control.
The Trust Equation has four components. Reliability is one of them. Reliability isn’t as simple as punctuality and turning up whit matters (though that does matter) especially when it relating to personal matters). Reliability is much more about whether people know what they are going to get from you. You don’t need to be perfect, but people find calmness and trust from a decent amount of consistency.
The best character you can be is a “what you see is what you get” kind of boss. It sounds simple but. in practice, for a lot of leaders, it’s the hardest thing to practice.
Steady Edwina or Eddie
There’s a difference between a leader who covers up their anxiety and one who can say out loud: I’m going to be in the detail this week because this phase makes me nervous. The team still feels the pressure. But they’re not trying to decode it. They can take your words, understand who you’re going to be that week and know what to expect.
You can still change your mind and you can still have doubts. But it’s a secret weapon of building trust to have the self-awareness to signal when you’re operating from anxiety rather than strategy. People also love that you have the honesty to say so (crossing over into the “intimacy” element of trust.
Reliability isn't about being a robot. It's about being readable. And the most trusted leaders I've worked with aren't the ones who never wobble. They're the ones who give the team the heads up that the wobble is happening, set clear deadlines, give the team space to deliver on the objectives and let them get there.