Words Without Deeds Don’t Count

Communicating visions, providing guidance and feedback and motivating subordinates are some of the main goals of leadership. To achieve these goals, leaders elaborate their thoughts and plans. They also act as role models.

There is ongoing research that focuses on what a leader says. For example, studies found that organizational visions can be most easily incorporated into subordinates’ objectives when the leader conveys visions with images (for example, “to see customers smiling as they leave our stores” instead of “to become the world’s leading seller of luxury goods”[1].).

Another topic of research has been studying what a leader does — including, but not limited to, initiating structure. For example, clearly defining roles and providing attitude expectations can improve subordinates’ performance, organizational commitment, job satisfaction, trust in leaders and more. (If you are interested in initiation of structure, click this link for a more comprehensive introduction.)

Moreover, as the witty Benjamin Franklin once said, “Well done is better than well said.” Researchers are also interested to see whether a leader’s behaviors speak louder than his/her words. Or under what circumstances would a leader’s words be more effective in motivating subordinates.

A theory suggests that employees make sense of their job and work norms through observing how leaders act. Research has found that what a leader says is most effective when those words align with deeds (called behavioral integrity). By surveying more than 1,000 employees from two banks across 28 branches, results showed that only when a leader behaved according to his/her words could the leader’s verbal coaching be influential in promoting subordinates’ positive social behaviors, such as helping coworkers. In contrast, if a leader’s behaviors deviated from his/her words, his/her verbal guidance would have the opposite effect and cause subordinates to interact with coworkers in more negative ways. For example, they were found to be less willing to pitch in to help coworkers when needed or more likely to participate in gossip about people that they don’t like [2].

We may all understand the power of words and the importance of modeling. We now have rigorous scientific findings to support our belief that actions indeed speak louder than words. Next time you find it difficult to convince your subordinates with lectures, think if you have complied with what you conveyed first.

References

Carton, A. M., Murphy, C., & Clark, J. R. (2014). A (blurry) vision of the future: How leader rhetoric about ultimate goals influences performance. Academy of Management Journal, 57(6), 1544-1570.

Dineen, B. R., Lewicki, R. J., & Tomlinson, E. C. (2006). Supervisory guidance and behavioral integrity: Relationships with employee citizenship and deviant behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(3), 622-635.