What you say vs What you do

Effective communication paired with decisive action is the bedrock of leadership and high-performing teams. In this lesson, we’ll explore how aligning your words with your deeds builds trust, credibility, and measurable results—from individual contributors to executives.

Note

Consistency between what you say and what you do accelerates team cohesion and drives organizational success.

1. Real-World Scenario: The Procrastinating Manager

Imagine you coach your team:

“We need to work more efficiently to meet our project deadline. Stay focused and let me know about any distractions.”

Later, a team member spots you scrolling through TikTok instead of collaborating on the project. This disconnect undermines your authority and sows doubt.

The image illustrates a manager instructing a team to work efficiently, but later a team member observes the manager procrastinating, leading to project delays.

If you need to step away—say, to meet a commissioner on the golf course—announce it:

“I’m heading to that meeting now. I’ll remain reachable for any urgent issues.”

Without transparency, you appear to value personal time over team goals. Likewise, if you advocate for automation, avoid manual workarounds unless you explain why.

Warning

Failing to communicate absences or process changes can erode your team’s trust and productivity.

2. Leaders vs. Doers: Shaping Strategy

As you advance into leadership roles, your focus shifts from hands-on tasks—like spinning up Kubernetes clusters—to defining strategy and enabling your team’s success.

The image illustrates the concept of aligning words with actions, showing a manager instructing a team to work efficiently while later being seen procrastinating, leading to project delays. It emphasizes the importance of consistency between what is said and done.

Whether it’s a CI/CD pipeline or a complete automation roadmap, set realistic deadlines and communicate risks up front. If you promise delivery in three days, either meet it or renegotiate. Never leave your stakeholders guessing.

3. Actions Require Communication

Building a “pizza”—be it infrastructure, pipeline, chart, or document—without informing stakeholders can lead to confusion or outright rejection.

The image illustrates a concept titled "Limitations of Actions Alone," showing a bridge with "Actions" on one side and "Understanding and team alignment" on the other, connected by "Communication." There's also a small inset of a person speaking.

Element	What It Means	Impact
Actions	Technical deliverables (clusters, scripts, charts)	Alone may feel disconnected from team objectives
Communication	Sharing goals, progress, blockers	Ensures alignment and collective ownership
Understanding	Team awareness of context and expectations	Drives acceptance and leverages feedback loops

For instance, a DevOps engineer covertly prepared marketing materials to move teams. The lack of clarity sparked frustration:

“Why haven’t you completed the deployment? Why are you prepping a webinar?”

Reassigning roles fixed the workflow but temporarily strained trust.

4. Building Trust Through Consistency

Trust emerges when your words, actions, and outcomes form a reliable pattern.

The image is a diagram illustrating the concept of achieving trust through consistency, with interconnected circles labeled "Trust," "Results," and "Consistency." There's also a person in the bottom right corner.

Consistency: Deliver on promises—big or small.
Results: Align deliverables with team objectives and values.
Trust: Grows when teams see reliable follow-through.

Surprise features can delight only if they solve known pain points. Unannounced deviations risk breaking commitments and damaging credibility.

5. Summary: Balancing Words and Actions

The image is a summary slide titled "Words and Actions – Summary," featuring a balance scale graphic and four key points about aligning words with actions, the importance of consistency, and its necessity for teamwork and organizational culture. There's also a small inset of a person speaking in the bottom right corner.

Align your words and actions to build and maintain trust.
Communicate before, during, and after your work.
Deliver outcomes that match team objectives and expectations.
Make consistency the cornerstone of your organizational culture.

Note

Integrate these principles into your daily routine to foster a high-trust, high-performing environment.

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