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750. The Leadership Trap: How Contradiction Erodes Trust and Influence (Rerun) · Daily Influence

• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to Daily Influence, your daily dose of positive influence.
• 0:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Brian Smith founder of IA Business Advisors and co-author of the Iain team series.
• 0:19
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• 0:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm Greg Clino, partner at IE Business Advisors, and co-host of Daily Influence.
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• 0:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hey everybody, Brian Smith here with the I'm team series and your daily influence.
• 0:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: Today we're going to talk about contradiction and there's actually a reason why we're talking about contradiction today.
• 1:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: I just recently came back from a trade show in Las Vegas and finally had an opportunity to go to Hell's Kitchen, which is one of Gordon Ramsay's signature restaurants.
• 1:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: And well,
• 1:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: my experience left me with a real, well, lesson and contradiction.
• 1:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's funny when you get to see these things in an amazingly visual way and that you have this context that people might be able to dive into.
• 1:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean,
• 1:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's okay to make up scenarios, but when you have a real world, real life experience, it actually adds something to it.
• 1:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: And especially when it's as high profile as a celebrity, or an influencer, as we commonly call them today.
• 1:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: But...
• 1:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: The thing about contradiction is it undermines credibility and trust, and while that might not mean much to somebody like Gordon Ramsay, it means a lot to most of us.
• 2:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: Most of us can't afford to make the types of mistakes that happened in my experience, and as I've done some research happens a lot, yet, you know, because they are so large, they can overcome them, because I think maybe they just don't
• 2:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: But we have to care.
• 2:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: So those of us, you know, out in the more contextual world where we live day in and day out and we don't have a global enterprise to support consistent contradiction, we got to think about how we manage our trust because it's the foundation of effective leadership.
• 2:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: and how when we can contradict either through words or through action, we create confusion, confusion for our customers, confusion for the marketplace, confusion for our team, and oftentimes it ends up being confusion for us.
• 3:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: because we don't even recognize our contradiction and we wonder why things aren't going well.
• 3:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of us who have had the experience of contradicting ourselves through words and action and not realize what the consequences are.
• 3:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it does, he wrote, credibility, and it weakens our influence.
• 3:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: One of the things that we like to teach is, smart, you've heard us talk about this over and over again here at I.A.
• 3:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: on the I.M.
• 3:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: team series in smartest, specific, measurable, attainable relative and timely.
• 3:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: And when we apply specific and measurable to our messaging, when we hold ourselves accountable to the specifics and the measurables,
• 3:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we are transparent about maybe potentially missing a mark somewhere, then our ability to contradict, or at least the results contradiction.
• 4:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: can be challenged.
• 4:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: They can be reversed.
• 4:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: They can be understood a little bit better.
• 4:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: But when we don't follow the smart communication protocol or smart tactic or strategy development protocols, then we leave ourselves open to inconsistency.
• 4:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: We leave ourselves open to people not understanding contextually what was required, what was what we wanted.
• 4:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it leaves us with these risks,
• 4:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: for contradiction to enter into our areas of influence.
• 4:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to give you the example of Hell's Kitchen.
• 4:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Gordon Ramsay has made a reputation being rude to people for not cooking well, not serving well, not being a good restaurant tour.
• 4:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's built his whole brand on holding people to some higher standard that he has set
• 4:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: As I walked into his restaurant, he was 20 minutes late in putting us at a table.
• 5:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: All the while his team was bragging about just how popular and how large they are.
• 5:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then they ignored us in blocks of 10 and 15 minutes didn't listen to us.
• 5:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yet all around you on screens that hell's kitchen are these videos of Gordon Ramsay.
• 5:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Quite frankly, being an ask to people for not performing well.
• 5:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: And at the same time, showing him stepping over himself to serve celebrities.
• 5:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: So making me feel like in my group that was with me as we sat there in this environment, feel like, well, if we're not a celebrity, we don't get that kind of service.
• 5:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: We get the shitty service, pardon my French, that he purports to be against.
• 5:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: That was my last meal at a Gordon Ramsay restaurant and that's the last meal I will take clients to and be in a global business owner who spends a lot of money on business dinners in areas where Gordon Ramsay has restaurants and I have previously enjoyed some of them, not all of them because this has been a funny enough consistent experience, we just won't do that anymore.
• 6:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: has caused an issue.
• 6:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, he'll never recognize that.
• 6:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: But in our world here, locally, and as we travel, it's going to mean something to most of us.
• 6:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Contradiction also creates a cultural and operational instability.
• 6:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Organizations culture is built on consistency yet.
• 6:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: When it's inconsistent, other people
• 6:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Imagine how these teams that health's kitchen have to react to when team members aren't consistent in good service.
• 7:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Other team members have to try to pick up the pieces and that didn't happen.
• 7:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: There were some people who actually tried, but that inconsistent behavior from people makes the environment hard to work in.
• 7:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if we're not in smart alignment, if
• 7:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: If the expectations aren't attainable or relevant to where we're at, it makes contradiction even more of a norm instead of the lack of it.
• 7:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, for example, a company where to preach work life balance, but then only rewards those who overwork themselves, what there's no consistency
• 7:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: So there is no work life balance, what there is then is your definition of work balance and you only reward those who work extra hard.
• 8:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: It does send in that example mixed signals which are contradictory.
• 8:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: In contradiction fuels mistrust, and it leads to attrition in long term damage.
• 8:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you don't have a good culture because as a leader or as an organization, we contradict our core values, we contradict our mission, we contradict what we say, then we're going to see
• 8:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that long-term damage will eventually catch up with us.
• 8:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: We could be in a huge market where we can feed the business for a while, but over time, as you start to erode that image, erode that trust.
• 8:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: then you will see that you start to diminish your return on investment, you diminish your ability to be thought of as a good place to go or a good place to get services from.
• 9:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: And to be in smart alignment, the leaders have to be timely about addressing their contradictions.
• 9:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: When they identify that a contradiction happens, they need to fix it, be transparent about it,
• 9:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: and then turn it around.
• 9:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: And course correction should be swift, and the market will understand mistakes.
• 9:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: The market will understand contradiction.
• 9:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: If it's put into the right context, if it's addressed properly, you're not going to give away the farm, pulling yourself accountable to mistakes that we made.
• 9:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: to the contradictions that we create for ourselves isn't about damaging ourselves.
• 9:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's about learning from that.
• 9:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: In the market, in each of our respective areas of influence, is generally pretty accepted to that.
• 9:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: So if you penalize the valetor penalizes an employee from
• 10:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's just set a double standard.
• 10:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: So if I was to penalize team members out in my organization for not meeting devis yet, I am regularly missing my own deadlines.
• 10:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, how does that create a nice culture?
• 10:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: How does that create balance?
• 10:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: What that creates is resentment.
• 10:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it reduces morale.
• 10:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Eventually lacks trust in me and it's a contradiction.
• 10:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: So look,
• 10:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: We have to recognize that all of our actions are influenced, and that perception of our influence is constantly happening.
• 10:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if we are contradictory in what we do, then the perception of our integrity is going to be negative.
• 10:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: So
• 11:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Avoid contradictions, the best you can align your vision with your actions, align your actions with your words.
• 11:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ensure transparency and communication, and to build a culture of accountability, you're going to have to hold yourself accountable if you contradict yourself and hold all
• 11:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: to be the best and most consistent organization and leader that you can be.
• 11:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: And when you do this, you'll set a good example, not just for yourself, but for your team, also for your marketplace, your partners, and anybody within your individual area of influence.
• 11:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it will lead to positive and responsible influence, which is exactly where we should all be striving to get to.
• 11:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: I hope you enjoyed this talk about contradiction
• 11:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: we can look at it, address it, be challenged by it, but also work through it and repair ourselves when we make those mistakes because we will.
• 12:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I hope you've learned that contradiction
• 12:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: is one of the worst things that we can repetitively do, but it's not something that we cannot recover from and that being smart about how we communicate, smart about how we act can help keep us consistent, building ourselves, building our teams and building our organizations.
• 12:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: I sure do hope you have a great day.