I was reviewing my list of my leadership core values today. The fact is I’ve always had these, however, when I was leading my team I don’t think I did as good a job as I should have regularly and intentionally articulating them. These values tell your team how you will react in a given situation. They should know this. They tell your team what you expect of them in a given situation. They should know this.

I thought I would begin to periodically highlight some of my core values. Some are unique to me, some are pretty standard and some are downright quirky. That’s ok. . .combined these make up the unique leader that I am.

The core value for today is – As a team we will. . .

Do EVERYTHING we say we are going to do.

Sounds simple right? So many organizations slack on this one though. Here’s the deal. When you don’t do EVERYTHING you say you are going to do then it not only damages your credibility but kills your position in a negotiation.

I was in a meeting once renewing a contract with a client. They were really pushing back on their new advertising rate and in the course of the discussion I found out that something our team had promised them and, I had signed off on, had not happened. Seems about 6 months into the deal they were told that we actually couldn’t pull off what we once thought we could. Now, in our defense they just accepted it when it happened, saying it was no problem, leading our team to believe they were ok with this, however, now I was finding out that they clearly weren’t and they felt like we had not lived up to our end of the bargain. So, here I was, trying to renew the contract, telling them what we would do and they had in the back of their mind. . . .”will you really do that?” UGHHH!!!!

If you promise something in a negotiation you MUST deliver on that promise. If you cannot deliver, don’t just assume the other party is ok with it. Speak to them, OVER communicate with them about it and then go ahead and make the physical change to the agreement that you both sign off on. Also see if you can offer them something else just to go the extra mile.

How about at the office? Did you:

• Tell a co-worker you’d have a report to them by a certain time and then decide you could miss the deadline this time?
• Agree to be at the office each day by 7:30am but consistently show up late?
• Show up late for a scheduled meeting and, once again, blame it on your busy schedule?
• Call a 30 minute meeting only to have it go 45 minutes. . . again?!

Sounds simple I know AND people break this everyday. Trust me, when you consistently don’t do what you say you’re going to do, even on the small things, people notice. You will lose credibility and over time effectiveness b/c people will know they can’t trust you.

Be that person that people can count on. . .EVERYTIME. That quality alone will make you stand out amongst your co-workers.