In behavioral economics, we often talk about the say-do gap. Essentially, people tend to say one thing, but do another.

Some examples:

You say you are on a diet and need to lose ten pounds, but you eat a doughnut each Friday at work.
You make a goal to pay off your credit card debt in a year, but you buy a new car next week .
As a sales rep, you know that you can earn more money with each incremental sale and that every minute you’re not working, you’re risking losing sales. But it’s a beautiful Friday afternoon and you decide to go play golf with a friend.

While these examples are pretty harmless, the say-do gap can have disastrous effects when high-profile business leaders say one thing and do another.

If you are a top executive, what you say and what you do carry a lot of significance. Gone are the days when you could “fly under the radar” (if ever you did). With the web and social media there is simply nowhere to hide anymore – and countless public figures have been ruined because of it.

In BI WORLDWIDE’s New Rules of Engagement, we state in rule number five “Be Boldly Transparent” because nothing is private anymore. As a business leader, you have to behave accordingly because the bottom line is people watch leaders; they listen to them and they are the first ones to be held accountable for not doing what they say they will do.

Our advice for business leaders and the say-do gap is twofold:

1.  Be thoughtful about what you say.
2.  Do what you say you are going to do.

Behavioral economics reveals to us that leadership roles are more challenging than ever. When you are in a high-profile role, you are more scrutinized and people aren’t as willing to “let you off the hook” when your natural human behavior gets in the way. While being a real human is one of the greatest assets any good leader has, you do need to make adjustments in order to lead effectively. The say-do gap is one of the areas to watch out for.

Learn more about how you can use behavioral economics to engage your sales team and employees into achieving long-term behavior change by downloading our article.