The Best Intentions
Most of us have good intentions. We start each day with our goals and ‘to do’ lists that will help us ensure our effectiveness. Then we start to go to meetings, have one on ones with our staff, walk around your office floor or production floor. Little by little in your interactions you begin to make small promises.
“No problem I’ll send that to you.”
“Great, no worries – I’ll get that out right away.”
“Oh yeah I can look that up for you.”
“I’ll return it right after we are done with it.”
Slowly but surely you are filling up your small amounts of free time with little things that matter to your employees but maybe not to your over all picture. What does this mean? Chances are – you are going to forget something, drop one of those balls that you have going in the air when the next company crisis comes into play. Your employee does not want to hear you could not approve their time off because you just did not get to it. It is something that is important to them and you have just let them down. What about all those other little things that you agreed to – what will happen if you do not follow up / through on them? Slowly over time you become unreliable and discredit yourself as a leader. What’s worse is that this is something that you do to yourself slowly over time – so you may not even realize you are doing it!
I have seen many a potential leader loose their credibility over missed opportunities to build trust. All of which came from their good intentions to do something for the employee or break a commitment to an employee. Most will forgive the first one or two mishaps but after that, you will find yourself climbing out of a lack of trust hold you never saw yourself dig into.
As Henry Ford so eloquently put it “You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” Good intentions are just that: intentions. But good intentions that are followed through are just one step on your leadership path.
What would a leader do?
~ Walk with something to write on and with. This makes taking notes much easier to ensure you keep your commitments. If you do not have something ask the person to send you an email. If you ask them nicely and they understand it’s to their benefit no hard feelings should result.
~ Set a confirmed date & time and ask to be held accountable for it. This will give you a due date to not miss and that should motivate you to get the task done.
~ Be mindful of what you are agreeing to. Only you know when you are over stretching yourself. Keeping commitments is more important then having the good intention.
