The Importance of Keeping Your Word

From a young age, children are taught the importance of keeping your word. This ranges from RSVPs, which means you must show up if you commit to attending a particular function, making a promise, and following up phone call to a customer. Failure to follow-through creates a sense of doubt and mistrust, both in business and in life. Following through on a commitment is one of the most important components when it comes to earning credibility, trust and respect as an individual and a leader.

Keeping Your Word in Business and in Life

Send a Response

Whether you own your own company or are work for someone else, forgetting to send a response to an email or following up with an answer when someone is waiting for your feedback is detrimental to your own credibility and reflects poorly on the company.

Building Relationships

Strong relationships are built on trust. If you cannot rely on a person to do what they say they are going to do, or be at a certain place at a certain time, once they’ve committed, there is little hope for growth.

We Rely on Their Word

When someone says, “I will get back to you with an answer this afternoon,” we rely on their word. Even if you do not have an answer, the best plan of attack is to call back and give them an update. It should be no surprise that someone who struggles with keeping their word the first time will continue doing the same throughout the business or social relationship. This type of behavior is indicative of a bad risk, both professionally or personally.

Do What You Say  You Are Going to Do

You build trust by doing what you say you’re going to do. If you fall short, and we all do, immediately offer a genuine apology. There are times when it is impossible to respond in the timeframe you had anticipated. Or you may have simply forgotten. Either way, a follow-up gesture of sincere remorse goes a long way to mending a fence. Also, explain what you will be doing next.

Difficult to Fix

I recently had a personal experience in this arena. I had experienced hail damage to my roof and contacted my trusted insurance company. Sadly and surprisingly, I was given the runaround by an institution I have been with for almost 40 years. Return phone calls were not made, too many weeks between communication and lack of concern for my time was obvious. Instead of feeling angry, I felt a deep sense of disappointment. A business I have trusted to provide care in an emergency had let me down, and there is no going back in my mind because there was no concern for their client. It started with the lack of follow up.

Make the Extra Effort in Actionable Steps

In some form or fashion, we have all felt this disappointment and it’s hard to fix. My mother used to say, “you can’t unscramble an egg.” Follow through, trust and credibility are the main components of your reputation. Those you serve, those who rely on you for service and those you love deserve your best.

As a friend, spouse, neighbor and business leader, following through on your word and putting the extra effort in to do a good job or make sure the other person has been taken care of is an indicator of your concern and your character.

Following through on a commitment is much more than words. It takes actionable steps to build trust.

You may also like Tipping the Delivery Driver. For more of Diane’s etiquette tips read her posts on Inc., subscribe to her articles on The Huffington Post, “like” The Protocol School of Texas on Facebook, and follow her on Pinterest,  Instagram and Twitter.