INsight/ The Consistency Gap
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Photo by Taylor Kopel on Unsplash
Manila, 17 March 2021 — How consistent are you?
Story
It happened in 2021. Dave Stachowiak, a fellow leadership specialist whose podcast I follow, shared how he had failed in a learning habit. “Not exactly my finest learning moment,” Dave said, going on to explain that “Real learning isn’t just about instruction. It’s about behavior change.”
What was this about? Well, Dave wanted to learn guitar, and his teacher had asked him to practice 15 minutes a day. Dave, on the other hand, was ready to practice once or twice a week, even for a longer time, but not daily. His teacher explained that he hadn’t seen that approach work.
So what was the result? “After nine months of minor progress, I gave up,” said Dave, “Because I was, well…too busy to dedicate 15 minutes a day.” Giving up was a result he wasn’t proud of. Yet he learned a valuable lesson from that experience and is sharing that now in the story: that consistency was more important than intensity, just as his teacher had told him when he started.
Challenge
Dave’s story illustrates that behavior change is one of the most difficult challenges we face in life. It’s easy to have good ideas about what you want to achieve, and it doesn’t take much effort to determine what you need to change to get there. It’s making the behavior change actually happen that’s difficult, and that’s where consistent practice, or the lack of it, will determine what result you get.
Imagine walking past a building site where people work only one or two days a week. You would know in your mind that something was wrong, that there was a gap in consistency. To see a new building rise, workers need to show up on schedule and repeat their tasks until it’s complete. The same is true for the leadership habit that you’re building right now. The good news is that developing consistent practice is very possible and can become natural. If you have a happy dog living with you, I’m sure that she looks to you to go out daily, not twice a week.
As a leader developing yourself and your team, you need to find and plug your Consistency Gap. To do your daily work on behavior change to show up consistently with effective leadership behaviors. Daily repetition will, over time, give you the results you want. I see that in my 1:1 coaching with clients in the Leader in Transition program, and in my group coaching work in the Grow3Leaders community. It’s the leaders who build consistent practice into their daily and weekly schedule who will get the results they want, including the ability to influence others and drive positive change at work.
Question
Having read this far, I’m pretty sure that you already have enough knowledge to either start or continue developing your leadership on a foundation of effective habits. The question is about your practice: how consistent are you in that?
From my experience, you have three ways to move forward. First, you can continue your work on improving your habits by yourself, flying solo as it were. Resources available online will give you enough knowledge to start, including Dave Stachowiak’s podcast, and my weekly leadership insights. Then you practice on your own. In my experience, however, changing your behavior is easier, faster, and more fun if there’s someone who is watching you with curiosity, waiting to see when you will show up with more consistency, and praising you when you do. That’s what you get with the next two options.
You can decide to catalyze your development by working with a coach. If you want to level up in your career, book a Free Strategy Session to see if the 3-month Leader in Transition coaching program is a good fit for you. Or share this with a colleague who can benefit from working with a coach. Finally, if you would like to learn and practice together with three of your colleagues, you can check if you’re up to our Grow3Leaders challenge to join the community. Keep in mind that regardless of what way you choose, you will need to practice 15 min a day to produce good results and not give up.