Do what you say you’re going to do

“I’ll call you back in an hour.”? “I’ll email the contract as soon as I get off the phone.” “We’ll complete our part of the project by next Wednesday.” “The service tech will arrive between 8 am and noon.” ?When you make such statements, and follow through, you build credibility for yourself, your team, and your company. You reinforce your personal brand as a person of integrity.? But when you drop the ball, whether working with our own colleagues or with your customers, ?you risk losing business, creating ill-will, disappointment, wasted time, and missed deadlines by making promises that you don’t keep. ?

Why do we do this?? Sometimes, we fully intend to do that call back, email that contract as we said, but time gets away from us.? We look up and it’s the end of the day and we realize that we never did that call-back or didn’t email that contract when we said we would.? A promise of an hour turns into 24 hours or worse.?? In other cases, we feel pressured to come up with a date and make a promise without full information in an effort to please.? Unfortunately, that can backfire spectacularly when we miss the time or the date.? And of course, sometimes it happens when we provide a deadline but are relying on another party to meet the deadline.? This one can feel out of our control, but frankly, it’s still a reflection on us when things fall apart.

It also happens at times that we discover that we don’t have enough information to respond as expected, so do some internal follow-up.? We tell ourselves we’ll get back to our colleague or customer once we’ve sorted out the open question, but if we don’t tell them this, ?how are they supposed to know that?? ?It’s imperative that we keep people updated, even if the update is that we don’t know anything yet.?

In all of these cases, someone is out there waiting for us to do something – likely getting frustrated and maybe even angry.? They’re calling us back or escalating up the chain.?

While there will always be special circumstances that can impact our plans, much of this can be fixed by being clearer about what we say we can do and within what timeframe.

·??????? Avoid over-promising or offering fantastic turn-around, especially if your work environment is very fast-paced and full of interruptions throughout the day.? The goodwill that we build by making the commitment can evaporate very quickly when we drop the ball.

·??????? Keep lists and records of outstanding touchpoints that you owe people.? Build in points each day for follow-up.

·??????? If the follow-up is dependent on help from other people, it is imperative we incorporate our own follow-up with those individuals.? If things slip, it’s on us to make sure our stakeholder is updated about status.

·??????? When pressured for faster turn-around than seems feasible, explain what seems doable.? If the pressure persists, involve other colleagues or leaders to ensure alignment.? Maybe there are other resources that can be used.? But the bottom line is that there are no winners when an empty promise is made.? It just delays the inevitable unhappiness and perhaps even results in closing a window of opportunity to get things done by utilizing other resources.

Rightly, there is lots of emphasis these days about workplace integrity and ethical conduct.? This brings to mind things like making fair and honest deals, not tolerating a hostile workplace, and obeying all laws and ordinances.? But one of the simplest and most meaningful illustrations of our integrity is illustrated when people know that they can count on us to do what we say we will do.? Let’s all be THAT person.

Adapt.Lead.Succeed.

For most posts, please go to adaptleadsucceed.com

?

?