Are your words worth anything? The Colonel said, “Words are just words, kid. They don’t mean anything if you don’t stand by them with actions.”
At one point in my career, I was very involved in a couple of Chambers of Commerce in my area. As my travel time increased, I knew I needed to trim down my obligations to be more effective for my business. The decision of which Chamber to release, though, was difficult. One particular chamber had just gone through a lengthy search process to find its new staff president. This new president talked about how valuable the membership was to her and how eager she was to get to know every one of us personally. I read everything she’d written, trying to find a glimpse into her character and authenticity, knowing that she would invariably set the standard for that chamber going forward.
At her first event, I introduced myself to her. We had a brief conversation, during which she was consistently looking over my shoulder at other people in the room. Though she met my eyes periodically on her way from looking over one shoulder to the other, it was never meaningful or focused. At breakfast, she said a few words from the podium before introducing the speaker, who was a member of the chamber. After mispronouncing his name, she gushed apologies and said she couldn’t wait to hear what he had to say.
The featured speaker was a banker, not a professional speaker, and it was apparent that he was very nervous. About two minutes into his presentation, the back of my brain was distracted by a conversation going on at the table behind me. Not a casual, commentary, but a fully engaged, oblivious conversation. That’s just rude in any situation. As a professional speaker, I certainly could have held my own in that situation, but this fellow was quite distracted by it and flustered.
I turned to see who was carrying on this rude conversation. (Okay, let’s be honest, I turned to give them “the glare.”) The oblivious conversation was coming from the new president. My father’s words came back to me, and the decision of which chamber to let go of was made. I think it was Emmerson who first said, “What you do speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you say. Words are just words, kid. They don’t mean anything if you don’t stand by them with actions.”
Read Lauren’s Whitepaper on The Nine Essentials of Significant Leadership.
