Consistency – ElPropósito5 min de lectura

Why our core pillars deserve our care

What’s one of the rewards of bringing some order to what we do? Consistency. What do the world and the people around us see when there’s consistency? Values. Who can act consistently? Everyone. These and many other questions come to mind when I think about that big word, and the core question is: how do we achieve it? There’s a phrase I love, though I don’t know who coined it: "Walk the talk." Do what you say. That’s exactly why I tie it so closely to consistency. Today more than ever we need to find meaning in what we do, to connect our existence with something higher that inspires us and leads us to do things that give our lives meaning, in business and in our personal lives alike. What allows us to act consistently, and what do we gain from staying consistent?

We talk and hear a lot about leadership, so the question is: does a leader have consistency? Yes. Where it clearly doesn’t exist is in a dictator, for example, or in someone who goes through life like one (keeping in mind that some situations call for a leader to be much more directive for a while). Back to the point: however we define it, a leader acts consistently. Their actions don’t clash with their values, and they do what they say. They hold respect and care for how they see themselves, others and the world, and for their place in space and time in the universe (tiny and fleeting). A natural leader knows that their life purpose gives them the clarity to see that their duty in this world is to serve others (to make an impact), to care for and grow the resources entrusted to them for as long as needed, and to leave a legacy.

The same is true for organizations. A consistent company invests whatever it takes to align its people, above all, with its values and strategy, and to keep them pursuing their personal and professional fulfillment. A consistent organization knows that its core pillars, mainly its purpose and values, are the two key levers that, used well, will let it achieve whatever it sets out to do. By the same token, it’s easy to see when an inconsistent organization works against its own values and purpose. It happens in a few ways: when nobody knows the organization’s history, when the founders never had the time or commitment to write it down, or when a deep change is pursued by radically overturning the organization’s values.

Consistency isn’t a fad. It’s the result of habits kept up day after day and year after year, which is why sustaining it takes real effort. Some institutions are INSTITUTIONS precisely because of the consistency they live by every day. Others are still standing even though their values say one thing and their actions another. Staying on the course toward our purpose means staying consistent and keeping our actions from contradicting one another. What’s easy and fleeting brings no consistency, because pursuing our purpose day in and day out takes effort, and effort is what sustains everything we do and want to do consistently. It isn’t easy to be guided by values, and it isn’t easy to get everyone in an organization to embrace a purpose. What’s easy is change for its own sake, with the core pillars forgotten. The consequence? Inconsistent behavior. The bigger consequence? Disappearing sooner or later.

There are times when we lose our way. It happens, it will happen, and to some extent it’s good to be aware of it. What’s not good is believing that, having lost our way, things are fine or will get better on their own (the plane is going to crash). What’s not good is forgetting that we come into the world with a unique purpose and a set of values that we must first know, then respect and then uphold. Where there’s consistency there are values, where there are values there’s purpose, and where there’s purpose there’s meaning, a North, a course. Leadership’s greatest challenge is keeping every piece of the puzzle part of one consistent whole (perhaps not yet assembled), arranged so the pieces fit when it’s time to put them together. The leader’s challenge is to keep pieces from someone else’s puzzle from being forced into the one life gave them to assemble.

Warm regards and all the best,

Rodrigo Baccaro

• P.S. This week’s VELA:
• What I was watching: Limitless with Chris Hemsworth, Episode 3, "Fasting." Peter Attia is one of my favorite authors, and here I found a good episode with Chris Hemsworth about fasting
  – What I was listening to: The US dollar might collapse. An episode of Jordan Peterson’s podcast with Peter Schiff, one of the people who predicted the 2008 crash. What stood out to me was the power of good questions, whoever the guest is. Both of them are also titans at what they do
  – What I was reading: Tools of Titans. A book you have to keep coming back to. Tim Ferriss is another of my favorite authors, and after watching the Attia and Hemsworth episode I remembered that it was through Ferriss that I found Attia, and so on
  – What I was learning: Latest insights on Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, exercise, nutrition and fasting. The highlight of this podcast for me was a concept I knew nothing about: the blood-brain barrier

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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