Do commitments matter?

I've been asking myself this question very often these days - do commitments and promises mean anything anymore? They once did, when our grandparents gave their word and kept it, even if it meant making personal sacrifices to do what they had promised to do.

It has been my professional experience in recent times that commitments and their value has seriously declined. So, someone says something to me with unflinching conviction the evening before and we settle on a plan, and the next day they don't bat an eyelid before doing a 180 degree! I had a colleague talking to me on the phone reporting similar incidents and asking me if that's how the 'corporate world' worked? Or are they missing something here?

Both for their and my sake, I focused on people who have taught me through their brilliant example that not everyone in our corporate world is the same. I have had the good fortune to learn from senior leaders no less that it doesn't take that much to keep commitments. A simple, "Sonali, I can't promise anything right now and we'll talk after a week", works just as well.

I guess people often promise things because they find it awkward to tell you otherwise. Especially, in our Asian culture. But isn't that a painful way to say, 'No'?

So next time you know you don't know for sure....say so. It will save a lot of explanations and apologies, but more importantly, it will tell the other person that you are a man or a woman of integrity. Who keeps their word. Even in this age.

Step 3: Becoming Super Leaders - Integrity

STEP 3 - Exercise Unquestionable Integrity

Warren Bennis, the illustrious leadership thinker and researcher, revealed that more leaders lose their jobs because of character flaws than due to lack of technical skills. Also, his list of five qualities of great leaders places Trust way above Intelligence or Technical skills. Definite food for thought this.

The Challenge: Integrity, honesty, transparency - all of these are intangibles that are generally not well defined as part of our KRAs or Key Result Areas. Not to mention, the pressure of our work life pushes these finer aspects of business to the back burner.

The Key: Avoid doing things in private we might be ashamed to admit in public. Simple. Effective.Does take effort and willpower, I admit.

3 Practical Ideas:
Relate to people as people: Our relationship with our team at work takes on a brand new meaning when we consider them people first and then co-workers, employees, vendors etc. This 'real' connectedness with others at work encourages our mind to discriminate between right and wrong a bit better. We can be unfair to a cog in the wheel much easier than we can to a person whom we relate to and who respects us back.

Being fair v/s being truthful: A lot of managers say to me that they can't possibly be truthful all the time. What if the information is confidential, we can't share that with anyone? Fair enough. From my own experience of being a team member, I always looked up to bosses who were frank about their inability to share beyond a point. At the same time, they gave us a road map to follow and openly asked us to improvise on current practices. I don't remember any of us hammering on their door for unfairness. So, let's broaden the idea of integrity. It can mean you can be honest to your team on several levels. Tell them that you can't tell them! Or give a time when you can speak to them more frankly. Or share what you think should be the course of action all things considred.

Long-term v/s short-term gains: We can be ahead of ourselves in being shrewd leaders and even then, history tells us that what goes around comes around. Playing games with our team or customers comes right back to bite us. So, what are we gunning for as leaders? List 1) popularity, liking, approval, promotions, getting our way? Nothing wrong with any of that, just that the above priorities motivate us to do things we might not be proud of. What if we prioritize goals such as - list 2) fairness, dynamism, innovation, respect, customer referrals, repeat clientele, and learning and development. Interestingly list two leads to list one - it's inevitable!

Integrity is a personal decision that has little to do with our work place. The question is, who are we becoming as we confidently march towards leadership success?

Coming up next: Step 4: Creating revolutionary streams of business