Live by this rule:
"Do as you say you will do."
You don't have to do everything. You shouldn't say you should do everybody. But if you say you're going to do something, do it. If you're not going to do something, don't say that you will. A lot of people say they're going to do something as an excuse not to do it, or to get themselves off the hook of doing something, and it kills your credibility with other people. If you think about people who lack credibility with you, like friends who get on your nerves sometimes, employees at work who lack credibility, companies you deal with ... A trend among a lot of them is that they don't do what they said they were going to do. "Hey, I'll text you this weekend to hang out," and then they don't, and it hurts your feelings. It's not so much that they didn't text you, it's that they said they were going to do something and they didn't. Or, people you work with "Can you get me those files? Oh, yeah, I'm finishing them up and will send them over this afternoon." And then the person doesn't send them to you that afternoon but maybe ... 2 days later, or maybe you have to ping them again. IT's not so much that they didn't send them that day, it's that they said they were going to, and didn't. Or the friend whose always late. "We're meeting at the park at 11:30 does that work for you?" "Yep, see you there!" And then 11:30 rolls around and they're not there, so you text them at 11:35... nothing... then 11:40 comes up and it's "Hey sorry leaving now..." And then 11:50 hits and you know it's only a short drive from their house so if they were "Leaving now..." that seems weird that it'd take that long... And then finally they arrive at 12:05. Sure, being late is annoying, but it wouldn't be as bad if they didn't tell you they were going to meet at 11:30,a nd then didn't tell you they were leaving now, that's what's annoying... And whne they get there they usually have some excuse "Oh sorry I'm late, blah blah blah blah." but it's a pattern with them, they have no credibility, so even though they're effusively apologizing, you know their apologies don't mean shit because they have no credibility.
It's my #1 thing I tell people I Work with who report to me. I don't really care if a report doesn't do something, but if they tell me they're going to do something, and THEN they don't do it, then I'm like... wtf man, you said you were going to do this. IF you're not going to do it, don't tell me that you're going to. It's just all about credibility. If you're going to be 10 minutes late for something, don't say you're going to be 5 minutes late, just say "Sorry I'm going to be late to the meeting." then people won't wait 5 minutes for you and have 5mins turn into 10 mins. A lot of people add specifics to something they don't intend to do because they think it builds credibility... "Hey, sorry, I can't get this work to you by today but I will get it to you at 9am tomorrow morning..." thinking that by adding "9am" to it, they've just built credibility. It doesn't. Sure, it assuages some worries in the moment, but a lot ofpeople add details like that specifically just to AVOID doing the thing they just said they'd do. They tell the lie, and then that takes the heat off "Phwew, they're not mad at me anymore......." If you just drop tohe promise of 9am, when you don't deliver at 9am then people won't be as annoyed with you and you'll maintain your credibility. THis is a hard thing to do, everybody fails at it sometimes, but by god if you do what you say you will do, you'll earn a ton of credibility and good will with other people.
