Keeping Your Word – Episode 14

180 Mentoring

Sometimes the smallest opportunity for keeping your word can make one of the biggest impacts in a person’s life. This goes for anyone in a position of leadership, whether in business, parenting, or other relationships. You know you appreciate it when someone keeps his or her word to you. Make sure you do the same for the people around you. In this episode, I share a story from my own experience about when a co-worker kept his word to me. The situation wasn’t even in our office – it was recreation. Listen to hear how impactful this was for me.

What does keeping your word mean?

Keeping your word means following through on promises you make. Or even if you don’t say the words, “I promise”, it simply means doing what you say you’ll do. This kind of integrity is also evident when you are honest with those under your leadership. At times, you need to point out an area where a person needs to improve. You can be honest and encouraging at the same time. If you aren’t one hundred percent honest with your employees, you’ll likely find yourself with even larger problems to fix, including their diminished trust in you. Don’t miss this episode where I share a great personal story that illustrates the impact of keeping your word.

If you keep your word in your leadership role, people will be likely to seek your input in new ways.

When the guy in the story kept his word to me, my respect for him deepened. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t always the top performer in our shop. I sought his opinion on various matters even more after that incident. I knew I could depend on him. Dependability is not optional for a leader. When you keep your word, those around you believe you can be trusted to be honest in giving advice, feedback, or just plain opinions. That is a quality that will always serve you well, and your future employers or employees will value that about you.

As a leader, if you can’t keep your word to someone, how should you handle it?

If you make a commitment and then realize you’re not going to be able to keep it, be honest about it. Tell the people involved what’s going on, ideally with advance notice. As you gain more experience with age, you will get better at not over-committing yourself. It’s best to be honest up-front and avoid making a commitment that you think you might have to back out of later. Take the time to think ahead and then communicate honestly about what you can and can’t do. You’ve gotta hear this whole episode because I also go into how good leaders need to sometimes follow.

Next steps for you after you hear this episode

As you think of what you’ve heard about the importance of keeping your word, sit back and think about what you’ve done thus far in your career or even just in life. Think about what you could have done better. But more importantly, be prepared to keep your word in the next situation that comes your way. Also be prepared to watch for the impact of that action. My bowling story happened fifteen years ago! I still think highly of that person. I made it a point to tell you about him. Think of all the news stories, past and present, which are based in some way on someone’s not keeping their word. Don’t end up like one of them! Listen to this episode to hear how my friend’s simple follow-through on a promise, made almost in jest, continues to be an example to me.

Outline of This Episode

• [1:03] Why I use a story to make my point in this episode
• [2:01] What does keeping your word mean?
• [2:35] Getting to the story
• [6:21] The best part of the story
• [7:26] My friend’s integrity impacted me, as well as my relationship with him
• [9:28] What to do if you can’t keep your word to someone
• [10:20] List of leadership examples in this story
• [10:35] Good leaders still need to be good followers
• [12:46] Next steps for you after you hear this episode

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