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     The day was September 28^th, 1962 and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was set to deliver a closing speech at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

     The room was full of civil rights leaders representing seventy five different chapters of the organization from across the south. 

     But there was one man in the audience who didn’t belong.

     He was a 24 year old white man from Arlington, VA named Roy James.  Roy was a member of a different organization – the American Nazi Party.

     As Dr. King walked to the podium and began to speak, Roy James did the unthinkable… he lept to his feet, ran to the front of the room and hit Dr. King in the face with a mighty blow.

     The crowd was in utter disbelief as King spun around and Roy James continued punching him in the back, over and over.

     Bruised and battered, Dr. King managed to turn back around and face Roy James as the audience was becoming enraged.

     At this point in history you probably know what Dr. King did… he refused to fight back. 

     In fact, he even stopped what appeared to be a retaliatory strike against Roy James, demanding the audience members not touch him.  Instead, Dr. King asked that they pray for James… and that’s exactly what they did. 

     At the time, King had been talking about non violence for several years.  But up until that point his mettle had never really been tested.  He had simply talked the talk.

     In that instant – as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. powerfully and clearly walked the walk – his sermons gained instant credibility.

     Dr. King left no doubt among the hundreds of civil rights leaders in the audience that he believed deeply in what he preached. 

     I imagine no one in the room had any doubt that Dr. King’s philosophy of non-violence was more than lofty rhetoric.  The rest, as they say, is history.

     Now here’s the thing…

     Dr. King wasn’t a great leader because he could give a great speech …People didn’t follow him because he could sell ice to Eskimos …They didn’t adopt his philosophy because it sounded nice.

     In fact, several other civil rights leaders thought non violence ridiculous and ineffective.

     No, Dr. King was able to inspire a revolution and change our country forever because he walked the walk.  And he did so demonstrably and visibly.

     This is absolutely critical when trying to gain investment from staff and build a culture of trust in the workplace.

     So often in organizations I see disconnection between employees and management.  One BIG reason is that leaders don’t practice what they preach.

     This double standard is a plague that can wreak havoc in any business.  And it only takes one employee to spiral out of control.  I’ll give you a perfect (albeit embarrasing) example.

     Early on in my career I reported to a marketing director who was… how should I put it… less than punctual. 

     In fact, this person was consistently late to work in the morning, and always late to meetings (we regularly had to wait 10-15min for her).

     One day I got to work a little late and didn’t call.  This isn’t cool and I don’t condone it.  But what happened next shaped the remainder of my time with that company.

     I was called into her office and berated for about 30min.  She kept going on and on about how “perception is reality” and told me repeatedly that if I want to be successful I’ve got to be “punctual”. 

     “You don’t want people to think you’re a slacker,” she kept saying.

     I wanted to leap across the desk.  I was so angry – and in utter disbelief.  “How could she be so blind,” I thought.

     You see, to her… she was always justified for being late.  She was a “Director,” and very busy… therefore she had a free pass. 

     But she didn’t, at least not with me.

     I walked out of the office with fire in my eyes and ran to tell the first person I could about what happened. 

     Before the end of the day I had probably shared the story with about 20 people (I’m not proud of that… like I said, this was early on in my career).

     Those 20 people probably told several others and before I knew it, no one was taking this director seriously. 

     We had such contempt for her that whenever she asked us to do something we would consciously turn things in late and do just enough to get by.

     Have you ever seen this kind of disconnection between employees and management? 

     The fact is that to be an effective leader you have to gain investment from your people.  And the only way to do that is to build trust with each and every one of them. 

     One sure-fire way to build that type of trust is to walk the walk in everything you do and say… not just in YOUR mind, but in the eyes of your PEOPLE.

     I have accepted and grown from the many mistakes I made in handling this situation.  And if I ever see that manager again I’ll apologize for the way I acted. 

     The good news is that this experience gave both of us an opportunity to learn an important lesson about leadership .  I hope that I’m not the only one who got the message.