I’ve written before about being your culture. Modeling the behavior you expect from your team and let actions speak louder than words. This behavior is hard, we often think of ourselves as busier and pulled in more directions than our staff. It is easier to fall back on “do what I say, not what I do.” The bottom line is when you use the rationale “I’m too busy” you telegraph to your staff that the same reasoning can apply to them.

One example is meeting management. I’ve experienced organizations that resent the meetings they have to attend. The truth is many, many organizations are bad at meeting management. Your staff may truly hate your meetings. There may be some staff that simply refuse to believe that meetings are an endless waste of time. Many times this opinion is founded on real impacts from habits that can be addressed. It may take time to turn around popular opinion that meetings are a waste, and taking active and visible steps to get better is a step in the right direction.

Your team looks at the top of the organization for cues in what behavior is expected and acceptable. Very often your behaviors are the only indication to staff who are many layers below you. There is value in considering what your behaviors broadcast to your team. Does it appear that you treat some people with special regard? Does it look like you are willing to go around typical role definitions? Do you keep a consistent set of priorities, or does it appear that your priorities change before delivering on the stated top priority?

One tactic that helps drive understanding is communicating intent behind behaviors. I have often made the mistake of assuming my staff knows my intent. Further, I have assumed that folks will assume positive intent. I recall scheduling a series of intensive reviews of a project because I wanted to help clear roadblocks and lend my support. The act of scheduling the review was immediately met with resentment that I didn’t trust the team was executing the project well. I couldn’t have felt differently, and by not communicating why I was scheduling the reviews I created a new problem.

I have leveraged the strengths of others around me who are better at specific tactics than I am. For example, when I needed to generate excitement around a new initiative I wanted to launch I asked for help from some of the most engaging leaders in my team. I asked them to help create excitement and get the word out, and they were much more capable of tapping into what would resonate with the team. If you find that you are struggling with following through on a habit that you want to spread in your organization, sometimes the best tactic is to delegate to someone who is fantastic at that habit.

Maybe you want to run meetings better in your organization. Consider finding a more junior person who can use this as a professional learning experience. It is one of the three things that can really set anyone apart. Empower this person to run your meetings and take yourself out of the equation. The combination of professional development and time savings can be an immense win-win.