Leading with Integrity: Turning Good Intentions into Meaningful Actions

A typical scenario we are party to – every single day. You're sitting in a meeting, passionately discussing the importance of work-life balance, innovative thinking, continuous learning, or any number of other things we attack with vigor in such settings. Everyone nods in agreement – the dreaded “corporate nod.” You leave feeling inspired and determined to make changes. Fast forward a few weeks, and you find yourself working late nights, sticking to old routines, and postponing that online course you promised yourself to take. Interestingly, the situations or commitments are no different in your personal life either.

Welcome to the value-action gap – the chasm between what we say we value and what we actually do. It's a universal challenge, one that everyone suffers through. It can be particularly pronounced for those of us in the fast-paced tech industry. As a leader, you are not only challenged by being a victim of the phenomena, but you are also looking out for your team not succumbing to it. Let's explore this phenomenon and how you, as a leader, can bridge this gap not just for your team, but for yourself as well.

The Leader's Dilemma: When Actions Don't Match Intentions

Being a leader is a privilege. But certainly, an exciting place to be in also. Because you have the singular responsibility of walking the talk every single day. You don’t want your team to see you say one thing and do something either the exact opposite or not at all. The need to set an example is imminent, not an option. It is the fundamental criteria that the team demands of you.

Consider these common scenarios:

1. The Always-On Leader: You preach work-life balance but find yourself sending emails at midnight. It doesn’t make it any more tolerable because you are the leader.
2. The Innovation Advocate: You champion new ideas but struggle to allocate time for experimentation. Fear of failure, perhaps?
3. The Diversity Champion: You're vocal about inclusion but haven't changed your hiring practices. Have you noticed the lack of women leaders in your team?
4. The Agile Enthusiast: You promote agile methodologies but cling to traditional project management approaches. Ouch.

Sound familiar? You're not alone. A study by VitalSmarts found that 97% of employees have at least one career-limiting habit they've been unable to change despite recognizing its importance.

Why We Fall into the Gap

Now that we have established the gap and the pervasive nature of the ailment, it is time we understand why this happens in the first place. And that may pave the way to overcoming it. Here are a few reasons why -

1. Cognitive Dissonance: As leaders, we often find ourselves in situations where our actions don't align with our beliefs. Our brains are remarkably adept at rationalizing these contradictions to maintain a positive self-image. For instance, you might advocate for work-life balance while consistently working late, justifying it with thoughts like "I'm setting an example of dedication" or "This is just a temporary crunch period." This mental gymnastics allows us to maintain our values in theory while contradicting them in everyday practice.
2. Present Bias: In the fast-paced tech world, we constantly face immediate challenges and short-term goals. This environment exacerbates our natural tendency to prioritize immediate rewards over long-term benefits. As a leader, you might postpone implementing a new mentorship program (long-term benefit) in favor of meeting this quarter's targets (immediate reward). This bias makes it difficult to invest time and resources in actions that align with our values but don't offer immediate payoff to our teams or projects.
3. Decision Fatigue: Tech leaders make countless decisions daily, from strategic choices to personnel issues. Each decision depletes our mental energy. By the end of the day, our willpower is often exhausted, making it harder to make choices that align with our values, especially if they require effort or change. This is why you might find yourself ordering takeout after a long day at work, despite your commitment to healthy eating or skipping the gym despite valuing physical fitness.
4. Habit Inertia: Our brains are wired to favor established routines, as they require less mental energy. As leaders, we've developed habits and workflows that have brought us success in the past. Even when we recognize the need for change to align with our values, overcoming these ingrained behaviors is challenging or, simply, overwhelming. For example, you might value open communication but find yourself falling back into old habits of withholding information or making decisions unilaterally simply because it's what you're used to doing all along.

None of the above reasons are born out of bad intentions or ill will. Nevertheless, the reasons point clearly to why we find ourselves standing in the gap between our values and actions, between what we say we will do and what we actually do.

?The Ripple Effect of a Leader's Gap

Interestingly enough, as a leader, your value-action gap doesn't just affect you; it cascades through your team and organization. If you consistently work late, your team may feel pressured to do the same despite your verbal support for work-life balance. When you postpone learning new skills, it becomes harder to inspire your team to prioritize their own development.

A study by Zenger and Folkman found that leaders who were perceived as "do as I say, not as I do" had employee engagement scores in the 25th percentile, compared to the 80th percentile for leaders who "walked the talk."

There are several steps leaders can take to bridge the gap. Some of them include -

1. Start Small: This is by far my favorite. Instead of overhauling your entire leadership style, focus on one area. For example, if you value work-life balance, start by not sending emails after 7 PM every day.
2. Use Technology Wisely: As a tech leader, leverage tools to your advantage. Use apps like RescueTime to track how you spend your time or Freedom to block distracting websites during focus hours.
3. Create Accountability: Share your intentions with your team or a peer. Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO, publicly committed to transforming its culture, creating external pressure to follow through.
4. Reflect Regularly: Schedule time for self-reflection. Jeff Weiner , former CEO of LinkedIn, blocks 30-90 minutes each day for reflection, which he credits for much of his success. Now, I don’t have any way of confirming if he did; I am simply going to trust that without such reflection, LinkedIn wouldn’t be where it is today.
5. Lead by Example: When trying to instill a new value or behavior, be the first to adopt it. When Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield wanted to encourage more vacation time, he openly shared his own time off plans with is teams. Isn’t that sweet?

Real Stories of Leaders Closing the Gap

Prioritizing Mental Health

After experiencing burnout, Arianna Huffington, founder of Thrive Global, made a public commitment to prioritize sleep and well-being. She not only changed her personal habits but also implemented policies at her company to support employee well-being, including "no email after hours" rules.

Walking the Talk on Diversity

When Accenture's former CEO Pierre Nanterme committed to achieving full gender parity by 2025, he didn't just talk about it. He tied executive compensation to diversity goals and personally reviewed progress quarterly. By 2019, women made up 44% of the company's workforce. The numbers today are even more impressive, with women representing 49% of the workforce and 29% of its managing directors.

As a tech leader, you have the power to inspire change not just through your words but through your actions as well. Recognizing and acknowledging the value-action gap is the first step. The next is to take concrete steps to close it. Start by identifying one area where your actions don't align with your stated values. What small step can you take today to bring them into alignment? Remember, it's not about perfection but progress. Every step you take to close your own value-action gap ripples out, creating a more authentic, effective, and inspiring leadership style that will propel your team forward. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi,

Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny.

As a tech leader, you have the opportunity to shape not just your own destiny but that of your team and organization. It starts with closing the gap between what you say and what you do.