Show More Than Tell
This article is excerpted from Five Frequencies: Leadership Signals That Turn Culture Into Competitive Advantage (Logos)
CEO Trent Kimball looks into the camera and announces he stands behind his product. But then he sits instead. In a marketing video watched over 24 million times on YouTube, Trent sits in a Mercedes behind a bulletproof windshield manufactured by his company, Texas Armoring Corporation. One of Trent’s employees stands a short distance away and points a loaded AK-47 at his boss. The employee might be nervous, but Trent appears calm and confident. The employee aims his rifle at Trent and fires multiple times. The windshield absorbs every bullet. Unscathed, Trent emerges from behind the shattered-but-fully-intact windshield and again looks into the camera to deliver a short marketing pitch. The words aren’t memorable. But they don’t have to be. Trent’s action has already told you everything you need to know: Texas Armoring sells one hell of a product.
Trent’s bold actions, however, aren’t limited to marketing videos. In fact, bold behavior has been a defining feature of his leadership from day one. A deposit from Texas Armoring’s first customer financed the start up, but that worked only because Trent waited six months to take a paycheck. More recently, he committed the organization to a strategy of global growth, and then he backed up his words by moving his entire family of eleven to Honduras. Actions like these have helped Texas Armoring attract new talent, retain A Players, and motivate discretionary energy.
But you know what’s less interesting than how Trent leads? Apparently, how Trent talks about it. As of this writing, a two-year-old YouTube video of Trent talking to BYU business school students has 192 views. Turns out Trent is better at “showing” than “telling.”
And that puts him in very good company. According to our research, it’s a leadership trait shared by most leaders who turn culture into competitive advantage.
By the way, this coaching point— “show more than tell”—isn’t just an invitation to behave boldly. It’s also about more mundane things like zealously following through on commitments and doing what you say you’re going to do. It’s about sustaining the focus on stated priorities even when it’s boring and other shiny objects and executive brain candy are competing for your attention. In short, it’s about remembering what we learned in first grade: Actions speak louder than words.
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