Speaking in Platitudes is Lazy, not Leadership

There is more to reaching goals and achieving success than visualizing dreams coming true. There is more to being confident than "fake it till you make it". There is more to overcoming obstacles than just putting one foot in front of the other. What if your feet are moving in the wrong direction, for example?

Speakers, authors, and Twitter posters who spew platitudes without insight or current research are lazy. So many people tweet quotes about achieving success, it's a wonder if they've ever had any at all.

Workplaces are full of framed posters depicting amazing feats illustrating a motivational thought. Meanwhile, managers are gossiping about each other, coworkers are backstabbing each other, and everyone is complaining about the weather. If the workplace leaders, whatever title they hold, do not behave in accordance with the values hung on the walls, the inconsistency is noticed and both poster and leader become a joke. A joke so prevalent, a whole company was created to mock the inconsistency by issuing de-motivational posters like the one shown. (www.despair.com)

Repeating inspiring words of others is not leadership. Doing so does not make people follow you. Well, except for in the twitterverse where it seems whoever googles the best quote du jour is considered the best leader to FFNow. (For the uninitiated, "FFNow" is a recommendation to "follow this person now", which is more important the a regular "follow".)

In real life, people expect words of wisdom to be congruent with actions. In real life, people notice when leaders "spew" instead of "do". In real life, people notice when eloquent quotations are more important than sincere salutations.

In real life, people see speaking in platitudes as lazy and phony. If you are a leader, remember to let your work and behavior speak for themselves more often than you let others' words speak for you.