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Podcast Season 4, Episode 13: Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life – Your Walk Talks Louder Than Your Talk Talks

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. When we see or hear or experience something from which we can learn, it is that example and experience that often helps us remember the lesson. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. And so I am sharing examples of circumstances and stories that I have experienced in my everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those stories, and it shows us that your walk talks louder than your talk talks.

Here is the link to the podcast.

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Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life: Your Walk Talks Louder Than Your Talk Talks

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. When we see or hear or experience something from which we can learn, it is that example and experience that often helps us remember the lesson. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. And so I am sharing examples of circumstances and stories that I have experienced in my everyday life, which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those stories, and it shows us that your walk talks louder than your talk talks.

This is a story that I know I’ve shared before, probably more than once, because of what it illustrates. I was serving as an administrator in a school that was in a different state from where my parents lived, and they came to visit me. It was their first time visiting me there, so nobody knew who they were. My dad came to see me at work during this visit, and sat down in my office to talk with me about what I did in my role. Now, it’s important to understand that my dad was an extreme extrovert, about as extroverted as I am introverted. In fact, I remember him telling me one time, “If I am in an elevator for more than two floors, and there are other people in there with me, it physically hurts me if I don’t start talking to them.“ Suffice it to say, it was not long before he said he wanted to go take a walk around the campus and talk to people. So, he got up and left my office. About 30 minutes later, one of my teachers popped his head in the door and said, “Hey, Jeff, is your dad here?“ I said that he was, and the teacher replied and said, “I thought so, because I saw somebody walking around who walks just like you.” Think about that. He accurately identified my dad because we have the same walk.

So, this makes me think about one of the pages on my website, www.LeadershipEzra.com, called “Quote Your Dad,“ and it is one in which I share a weekly quote that communicates wisdom. Although sometimes I share quotes from other places, most of the time these are literally quotes from my own dad, who was known for the wise sayings that he would share. One of those quotes that I have most frequently shared, and one that I have most frequently repeated when I speak to others, is, “Your walk talks and your talk talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk talks.” 

What he meant by that, and what this story illustrates, is that people are observing the way that you act and what you do, and drawing conclusions about who you are based on what they see. In fact, they will more likely draw conclusions about who you are based on what they see you do than on what they hear you say. And that is an incredibly important distinction and lesson for any leader. People both judge you and imitate you based on what they see, often regardless of what you say. More than that, if they see that what you say and what you do don’t match up, they identify that as hypocrisy and a lack of integrity. Therefore, if you are going to lead well, you must pay attention to your walk, and to how it matches your talk. You need to remember these four things:

  1. People are watching you and learning something about you by what they see, often when you don’t realize it. Just as often, they don’t realize that they’re doing it either.
  2. People hear what you are saying, even when they don’t hear what you say. That’s because they are listening with their eyes, often more than with their ears.
  3. People will believe what they see you do more than what they hear you say. If what you say and what you do don’t match, they will judge you based on what you do.
  4. People will trust you more when what they see you do matches what they hear you say. They will do that because you are showing integrity in who you are, which tells them they can believe you.

That’s the lesson on leadership from this little thing in life, from someone recognizing who my dad was based on the fact that he and I walked the same way. People will see what you do and hear what you say, and then they will make a determination about who you are. They will judge your character first on what they see you do, but then on how it matches what you say. And that’s because your walk talks louder than your talk talks.

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Quote Your Dad

“You don’t see what you’re not looking for.”

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Podcast Season 4, Episode 12: Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life – You May Not Notice It Until It Is Not There

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. When we see or hear or experience something from which we can learn, it is that example and experience that often helps us remember the lesson. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. And so I am sharing examples of circumstances and stories that I have experienced in my everyday life that illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those stories, and it is an important reminder that there are things that you will not notice until they are no longer there.

Here is the link to the podcast.

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Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life: You May Not Notice It Until It Is Not There

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. When we see or hear or experience something from which we can learn, it is that example and experience that often helps us remember the lesson. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. And so I am sharing examples of circumstances and stories that I have experienced in my everyday life that illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those stories, and it is an important reminder that there are things that you will not notice until they are no longer there.

I saw this illustrated recently when I had to get hearing aids. At my wife’s request, my doctor sent me to an audiologist to have my hearing checked, who determined that I was experiencing age-related hearing loss, and that if I would wear hearing aids, I would minimize the risk of damage to my hearing. At first, when I started wearing them, I could tell that they were there, because I could hear and feel that they were. Surprisingly to me, I could tell that I was hearing better (which was proof that I needed them), but because they were new, I could also hear echoing and background noises while my brain adjusted to the new and improved data that I was taking in with these devices.

After wearing them for a few weeks, I began to notice them less and less as my ears and my brain acclimated to wearing them. I reached the point of getting ready for bed and forgetting to take them out because I was no longer realizing that they were even there. At that stage, what was more noticeable to me was what happened when I took them out. Because I had adjusted to wearing them, before I took them out for the night, I could no longer tell that they were there, but once I removed them, it became obvious that they were not in.

That experience is a great picture that you tend to get used to things, eventually to the point that you only notice them when they are no longer there. They become something that you no longer notice or no longer question. It may be a process or tradition that is always done, without any thought about why it’s done. It’s just what you do without thinking about it. It may be something that’s part of a regular routine that you no longer pay attention to or think about, like how you brush your teeth or which leg you put into your pants first. Again, it’s just something you do without giving it a thought. But then it stops, or it goes away, and all of a sudden you notice it. But that didn’t happen until it was gone.

With that in mind, it is a good idea to consider a couple of questions about the processes, people, and pieces of your organization:

  1. Is it important enough that you need to remind yourself periodically? Knowing that you will begin to not notice it, and if it is important to you and your organization, you may need a periodic reminder to bring it back to the forefront of your awareness. This is true of the people you rely on as well as the routines and processes that are a normal part of what you do.
  2. Does it need attention so that it does not go away? If the loss of this, whether it’s a person or a process, will have a negative effect, you ought to consider what you need to do to give it the attention it needs before it (or he or she) goes away.

This is the lesson on leadership from this little thing in life, from having to get hearing aids as part of my aging process. Like white noise, there are things that you don’t notice until they’re gone. They have become normal and routine, and your brain relegates them to the background so it can give attention to other things. But then it goes away, and you become aware of what you are missing, and sometimes, that’s not good. So, periodically, make sure you attend to those things that you no longer notice, so that you don’t lose what you need before it’s too late.

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Quote Your Dad


“Your walk talks, and your talk talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk talks.”

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Podcast Season 4, Episode 11: Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life – You Have Imitators

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. When we see or hear or experience something from which we can learn, it is that example and experience that often helps us remember the lesson. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. And so I am sharing examples of circumstances and stories that I have experienced in my everyday life, which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those stories, and it is an important reminder that you have imitators.

Here is the link to the podcast.

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Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life: You Have Imitators

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. When we see or hear or experience something from which we can learn, it is that example and experience that often helps us remember the lesson. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. And so I am sharing examples of circumstances and stories that I have experienced in my everyday life, which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those stories, and it is an important reminder that you have imitators.

We were sitting down to eat breakfast together on a Saturday morning, and our grandchildren were sitting there with us. When we eat together, my granddaughter likes to sit next to my wife and eat what she is eating. Meanwhile, my grandson was sitting next to me, and he had some fried spam on his plate because that is one of his favorite breakfast foods. As we were talking and laughing, my wife looked over and asked, “Is he eating his spammy spam?” He answered, yes, but then my granddaughter chimed in and said: “I’m eating my muffin muffin!” We laughed because it was cute, but it was also a reminder of how much she was paying attention to everything my wife said and did, so that she could imitate her.

Early in my marriage, my wife made a comment to my mother about how much I wiggled my feet when I was going to sleep, and that this would keep her from falling asleep. My mother responded by telling my wife that my dad did the same thing. Years later, my dad came to visit a school where I worked, and he left my office to walk around the campus. After a while, a teacher (who had never met my dad) walked into my office and asked if my dad happened to be visiting, because he saw someone walking around that walked just like me. I could think of many more examples, but they all do the same thing: they illustrate our tendency to imitate the people who are close to us.

That’s an important truth to which you need to pay attention. The people that you spend time with, and the people who look up to you, will tend to imitate what you say and what you do. That includes the people that you work with. Therefore, you must pay attention to the example you are giving them to follow. More specifically, there are two significant truths that you need to pay attention to:

  1. People are watching you and will imitate what they hear you say and what they see you do. I happen to believe they are going to imitate what they see you do even more than what they hear you say, but both of these underscore the importance of your example (and this is why my dad would say, “Your walk talks, and your talk talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk talks.”). Regardless, you need to understand that they will imitate you.
  2. They will likely take it to the next level. When my kids were young, I remember hearing someone say that what we do in moderation, our children will do in excess. The same idea is true for you in your leadership. The people who imitate you will do what you did to a greater extent and extreme, which, again, underscores the importance of your example.

What this means is that you need to be intentional and aware about who is ahead of you and who is behind you. You need to realize that you are imitating someone, and that others are imitating you. The apostle Paul conveyed this same idea in 1 Corinthians 11:1 when he said, “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.”

That’s the lesson on leadership from this little thing in life, from my granddaughter imitating my wife. Whether you realize it or not, and whether you want them to or not, people will imitate your example. They will use the words you use, in the way that you use them. They will do the things you do, in the way that you do them. Therefore, knowing that you will always have your own imitators, be intentional about the example you provide. Because the example you provide is what they will follow.

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Quote Your Dad

“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.“ Robert Burns (To a Mouse, 1735)

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Podcast Season 4, Episode 10: Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life – Something Unexpected Is Likely to Slow You Down

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. When we see or hear or experience something from which we can learn, it is that example and experience that often helps us remember the lesson. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. And so I am sharing examples of circumstances and stories that I have experienced in my everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those stories, and it points out that there are often unexpected things that slow us down. 

Here is the link to the podcast.

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