Gary Player is a great golfer and a great person.
He’s lived his life a certain way and he’s achieved a lot. When he talks about success, sport and fitness, it makes sense to listen.
But even Gary Player can fall into the trap of hypocrisy.
One of Gary’s long time friends on the PGA Tour is Lee Trevino.
Trevino is a pretty sharp guy. Not much gets past him and he’s always there to kind of tease Gary about all that fitness talk because Trevino knows that Gary has a weakness for Snickers bars.
Now, it’s really not a huge deal that we know that Gary likes his Snickers bars. He lives 99% of his life the way he believes. And he has the results to show for it.
But some of us, I’m kind of pointing my own finger at myself, tend to be more than just a little hypocritical.
Disciplined People
Think of the people in your life that you respect the most.
Chances are that these people have great discipline.
What I mean by discipline is that they have beliefs and they live those beliefs with their actions. Every day.
You respect these people. You listen to what they say. They motivate you to be a better version of yourself.
Now, the other side of the coin is a person that says one thing and doesn’t follow through. Sure, they may live by what they say once in awhile, but for the most part they are hypocritical about it.
I guess I look at Ghost Blog Writers. We sell to our clients that long-term business blog brings in traffic and new customers. We believe it and we practice it. We practice what we preach and I’ve tried to make that something core to our business since the very beginning.
If I hadn’t followed through on that the writers on the team would look at me as hypocritical and potential customers would have done the same.
Hypocritical Leaders & Entrepreneurs
You probably know a business leader or entrepreneur that is a hypocrite. Usually these leaders aren’t seen as very favorable by their team.
Let’s take the example of a leader that asks employees why they’re late to work? But then a few days each month they show up late to work or to meetings or for phone calls.
Or another example where a leader expects you to be ready for a call or a drop-in meeting at a moments notice. No worry about interrupting whatever task you’re working on at the time.
But if you drop-in to their office or call them and they’re busy then you better get ready to get shot down.
Final Thought
Entrepreneurs can’t afford to be hypocritical. You totally risk losing your team if you don’t have the discipline to live by the things you believe and the things you say.
But it’s not always easy. There are difficult decisions to make nearly every day as an entrepreneur. And if you don’t really know what you believe to begin with then you don’t really know how to make good decisions.
So there are a few key takeaways:
- Discovery Your Beliefs & Values: Look internally at yourself and your company. Identify what is most important, what you stand for and why you exist.
- Look For Inconsistencies: Once you know what you stand for, look for inconsistencies in your life. Chances are there are at least a few. I’m thinking of a few in my life right now…
- Let Beliefs Guide Decisions: The next time you have a decision for your business, big or small, look to your values for guidance. Let’s say one of your beliefs is staying true to your word. You make a quote to a client and it later turns out that you’ll lose money. You could back out and save money, but it would go against your core belief. That stands out like a sore thumb to your team. See it through. Make changes after for the long-term.
I know you want to be a good leader. I’m sure you are a good leader. But if you have any hypocritical things about the way you work and live then chances are your team members are picking up on it.
Look at your beliefs and make decisions based on them. Also look at what you tell your team to do. If you aren’t willing to do them yourself, you’re going to struggle to get everybody fully on board.