One of the things that differentiates this book from most business writing is that instead of just advocating the importance of managers and leaders modelling the values and principles of the organisation, Maister actually offers proof that such behaviours have a direct causal impact on the financial bottom line.

At the heart of 'Practice what you Preach' is an extensive worldwide survey Maister conducted in 139 offices throughout 15 countries in 15 types of businesses. His objective was to identify the attitudes that correlate most strongly with financial success.

Seventy-four questions were asked along with an analysis of financial information. Maister also conducted extensive interviews with the organisations' managers and workers. In analyzing the top 20% of the most financially successful companies, he came to the conclusion that the behaviour of managers played a large and powerful role. The survey demonstrates that employee attitudes are directly linked to financial success.

Causal Relationships

Maister establishes a web of causality and correlation among the survey's areas of focus. At the heart is the conclusion that strong financial performance is a result of high quality work and strong client relationships (i.e., customer service). In fact, a shift from "somewhat agree" to "agree" on the questions pertaining to quality and client relationships would cause a firm's financial performance to double.

High quality and strong client relationships are caused, in turn, by high standards and employee satisfaction. Employee satisfaction is caused by empowerment, coaching, and high standards. The causes for these three factors (and with correlative but not causal relationships among themselves) are long-term orientation; enthusiasm, commitment and respect; training and development; and fair compensation.

Key Elements of Managers' Impact on Financial Success

Of the top twenty statements that distinguished the most successful companies, seven apply to managers and their actions as individuals - in that they:

1. Listen
2. Value input from others
3. Are trusted by others
4. Are good coaches
5. Communicate well
6. Practice what they preach
7. Treat others with respect

The Impact of Coaching

Coaching alone has a remarkable 12% correlation with financial success (i.e., 12% of the variance in financial success can be explained by variation in responses to questions about coaching). Training and development together have only a 6% positive correlation in this study.

In a further analysis, Maister shows that the financially worst performing offices scored 18% lower than average, whereas the highest performing offices scored 11% higher in relation to the factor of Coaching.

Behaviours that Make a Difference

• Be unquestionably honest, comfortable with other people getting credit, a good communicator and listener, accessible all the time, and the reason people want to stay.
• Believe that if you first build your people, the rest will come; that success is about character, respect, integrity, trust, honesty, empowerment, confidence, loyalty, and keeping promises; and that a culture can be sustained only if other managers share your values.
• Allow people to learn from their mistakes without retribution; only ask employees to do things you would do yourself; walk the halls and know all the employees; and remember what people tell you.
• When you get angry, make sure people know why.
• Hold senior managers responsible for the career development of their subordinates. Ensure there are consequences if performance reviews aren't done on time.
• Watch closely for people who may be getting bored and reassign them.

"If you think practicing what you preach is tough, just try preaching what you practice!"