Leaders spend a lot of time communicating. In fact, it was a hard lesson for me to realize that communicating was one of my major job responsibilities as a leader of a large organization. It’s important for any leader to realize that communication is many things, including your actions. In many cases your actions can render your words meaningless. As a leader, it’s that much more important to be sure your actions represent the words you say to reinforce your message.

This lesson couldn’t have been made any more clear to me than during the current teacher strike in my kids’ school district. The teachers in our school say they don’t feel respected by the board of education. The board of education has said they respect and appreciate the teachers. The negotiations have been slow and tense with both sides accusing the other of mistreatment. The negotiating tactics have left the parties feeling disrespected. The words say the exact opposite.

As a leader, your actions are always under scrutiny. Your team is looking to see if your words are backed up by your actions. There are plenty of times when you may not realize the message your actions are sending. For example, when you say that you don’t expect your staff to respond to e-mails over the weekend and you still e-mail your staff on Saturday. If you aren’t very explicit that you don’t expect them to read or respond, it is likely the reader will assume some kind of urgency to work on it over the weekend.

We can be more effective by being extra aware that others may misinterpret our actions. Your team will ascribe a motivation for your actions that suits them. They may be totally wrong. We all naturally go through an exercise the looks like “If I did that I’d have to feel like this…” Once you’re aware you can take action.

Plan to communicate around your actions. Be explicit and share your motivation so people don’t have to interpret it for themselves. Practice looking at your actions from another person’s point of view, and explain a bit more around your actions and your intentions.

Change your behavior in a way that supports your message more directly. In our example above on e-mail, perhaps include in the message “I don’t want to forget this for Monday, so I’m sending the e-mail on Saturday. Please know I don’t intend you to have to work on it over the weekend.” Or perhaps you schedule your e-mail to send on Monday morning even though you wrote it Saturday night.

Actions speak louder than words. And your actions as a leader are always on display and open for judgement.