Consistency. It is a massively, massively underrated skill as an entrepreneur, but one that you really need to master if you want to be successful in business.
Now, let me tell you about consistency and how I learned about it. I remember, in my very first job, when I was at university and I did my year’s placement.
The boss said to me one day, and she meant this as a compliment, even though it felt a bit weird. She said,’ do you know one of the great things about you, Sara? I never know what time of the month it is with you’.
Now, I mean, you shouldn’t really say things like that to women! And I remember at the time thinking, what’s she getting at? But I think what she meant is that I’m always the same, I’m consistent. It doesn’t matter what is going on in my life, it doesn’t matter what time of the month that is.
You often hear people use the phrase, you know, what side of bed did you get out on? But I was always the same, always had that really consistent way in how I deliver and how I interact with people.
And honestly, whatever else is happening in your life, to show up consistently, whether that’s as a boss, as an entrepreneur, as a friend, as a manager, it is one of the biggest skills and something that you need to constantly work on from a self-development point of view.
People respond to consistency because they know where they stand. That’s the big difference.
If you think about your staff, they can predict how you are going to respond to something if you consistently behave in the same way. So, what I train my staff to do over a number of years is to always ask themselves the question: what would Sara do? What would Sara think? And if I’m behaving consistently they get used to those same behaviours and they can predict my patterns, they can start and be more like me and make their own decisions.
The other great thing is they can do their job without worrying that there is a nasty surprise around the corner which must be an awful feeling for any staff member to have. I love my staff to come into work and feel secure because it’s a safe environment.
Now, think about this in your personal life.
If we take it out of business, we all have that one friend who when you meet up with them, you don’t quite know what version of them is going to show up on that day. It makes you anxious. It makes you nervous about meeting up with that person.
I see some bosses at work as well who think that mood swings or that bit of a sense of unpredictability that they can deliver is great for keeping stuff on their toes. Well, I couldn’t disagree more, I think it’s terrible for staff. If you think about your junior staff, they could potentially dread coming into work.
They ensure what type of performance is required from them and they’re also learning by example because they’re learning from you. You are not just their leader you are their mentor, you’re their role model and that inconsistency feels like a power move.
So try and behave consistently because it really empowers those that are around you, whether that’s as a manager, a friend, or a parent – whoever.
Now, at work, what you want to be able to encourage people to do is progress projects when you aren’t there. Again, always making decisions, saving the knowledge that they’ve got a good idea of how you would feel about that decision or what you might say. The key thing to remember is consistency is one of the drivers to building what’s called leadership equity.
I’ve talked about this before and it’s a really important facet. Leadership equity is something that you earn with your staff. You can’t buy it, you need to earn it and build it up. It takes time, many, many years, to really build up strong leadership equity but you can lose it just like that. And consistency is one of the key drivers to being able to build up leadership equity within your staff.
Consistency also really shows that you have a strong vision, you have clear direction.
And what you will find is, even if people don’t agree with a decision that you’ve made, which will happen a lot when you’re the boss. Not everybody’s going to agree, even if they don’t agree with the decision they will still back you on it, they will get behind you because they respect you that are consistent in your approach.
Having said that, I will say consistency is a lot more than just being predictable. Just being predictable isn’t enough, right? Predictability lacks imagination because consistency is all about having courage in your convictions, having the confidence to act on them, having the courtesy to embolden other people around you to do the same sort of thing.
So, the big takeaway for me from this video, I want you all to really think about how do you behave consistently? Can your staff really sit up and say ‘okay if Sara was here, if you were there, what would they do and can I make that decision confident in the knowledge they’re gonna look after me’?
Consistency gives that clear framework for people to operate in. For staff it’s just removing that fear of getting things wrong and it creates an enormous amount of respect so it’s a brilliant thing that I want you all to work on.