Words on the Wall Won’t Lead Your Team

A poster isn’t a plan, and motivational words on the wall won’t lead your team to where you want them to go. If you have a message that you want to put up as a reminder for your team, that is a great thing to do, but it cannot replace your efforts as a leader. You must model the expectations that you have for your team and offer guidance to them. A poster won’t fix your team’s culture, productivity, internal conflict, accuracy, or anything else. You still have to implement effective strategies for improvement.

Furthermore, if you do decide to put up words of encouragement or policy-related posters, make sure that leadership is following them and that they align with the organization’s systems and values. For example, if there is a poster that says, “Stay positive. Work hard. Make it happen,” but leadership complains about how bad everything is all the time or they’re not contributing, then the poster loses its meaning, and it’s just a piece of paper on the wall. The same thing applies to policies and procedures. Safety rules are displayed for a reason, and they are not just decorative, nor are they optional. 

The problem that many organizations have is that instead of addressing things directly with their employees, they will pin a message to a bulletin board or get a new poster for it and then hope for the best. You cannot rely on the fact that people will read those messages, but more than that, a poster isn’t going to do the work for you. A sign that says, “Treat everyone with kindness,” is not going to resolve the conflict between employees or improve employee to customer interactions. Have a conversation with your team, implement additional training whenever necessary, and remember to demonstrate the attitude, behaviors, and actions that you are asking of your employees.

Organizational success stems from what leaders model, reinforce, and build in collaboration with their team. Words on the wall won’t solve your problems; only you can do that. Be intentional about what you display, and live by those messages if you’re going to have them up. As cliche as it may sound, actions speak louder than words, so stop using posters to promote things that you are not willing to demonstrate with your actions, and start living by those words and leading with intention.

-Meghan Slaughter