Make sure your actions speak just as loud as your words

As a parent, you might be able to get away with a “do as I say, not as I do” approach. It will not work in other situations, especially if the public is trusting you to provide reliable information during the ongoing pandemic.

Your actions must match your messaging and here is why.

In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, there were dire warnings about the dangers of large gatherings. We were all urged to avoid travel and put off the big family dinner until next Thanksgiving when vaccines will be available and the pandemic will have, hopefully, died down.

It was good advice as COVID-19 surged to record levels across the U.S. but were all of our elected officials practicing what they preach. Nope. In fact, several were doing just the opposite and they wound up paying the price for it.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi quickly canceled a large in-person dinner party she was planning to welcome new Democratic members of Congress after a backlash on Twitter. “Imagine telling families not to hold Thanksgiving (we shouldn’t) and then doing this. Come. On,” tweeted New York Magazine reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones.

This was not Pelosi’s first scrape with an angry public over her failure to follow the rules she prescribes for everyone else. Back in September, the…