There is a recent "dust up" about Eric Holder's (Attorney General in the US) 5 day trip to the Caribbean Islands at a time when government spending is supposed to be curtailed and expenses cut back.
It brings back memories of being with a Fortune 100 USA company, and we were advised that we had to reduce costs: travel, phone calls, and office expenses. We were called into the Executive's office and told that telephone bills would be closely scrutinized for personal calls, trip expenses and justifications would be closely monitored and prior approval had to be obtained, and even checking out pencils and pens now had to be signed out and accounted for by our assistants, with a final review by the Executive.
Two weeks later, there was a senior executive meeting to be held in Monte Carlo, which was over a week long. Needless to say this did not engender any good morale or engagement building! Quite the opposite.
Another related situation occurred when a CEO asked for candid feedback about areas that could be improved within our divisions. The first senior manager called upon, discussed those areas where he could improve, and those he could personally improve upon also. The CEO proceeded to lashed into the manager for over 15 minutes. After that, the other Manager reports were merely stated factually and skirted the issues where improvements could be made.
When you are trying to build engagement and trust, not walking your talk, seriously undermines your messages and interrupts candid and needed communications by a CEO, senior manager or leader. It also negatively affects Charisma for those who want to engender that view.
So always try to be consistent and sincere, others will know if you are not!
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