Consistency
by Miki SaxonA few weeks ago Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said “The danger of that for the country is that there won’t automatically be an ability to restrain the excess that is typically associated with big majorities and single-party rule.”
OK, typical political rhetoric, but that isn’t what caught my eye.
What I found so amusing was the line about the dangers of “single party-rule.”
Amusing because when the Republicans owned the majorities in both the House and the Senate and there was a Republican President single-party rule was fine.
But it brings up an important point and one that can have a major effect on your company or team.
The point is consistency.
If, in fact, holding both the Presidency and Congressional majorities is de facto single-party rule then it doesn’t matter which party holds it, it’s still dangerous.
In business terms that means that if you condemn something your competition does or the way it acts and then do or act the same way you’re being inconsistent.
Likewise, if you laude something and don’t either follow suit or escalate it you’re being inconsistent.
People hate inconsistency, whether they’re your customers or employees.
And don’t kid yourself that they won’t notice, they will—people aren’t stupid.
You don’t have the advantage of ideology working for you in a business setting. Ideology works in politics, most people won’t notice the inconsistency in McConnell’s words, but even rabid Apple fans are quick to call Apple on anything that they think is inconsistent with the brand or the culture.
So think about your consistency and monitor your words and actions—better yet, build consistency into your MAP.
Image credit: Les Bessant on flickr
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