Page 62 - Fearless Leadership

The Blind Spots That Derail Leaders 49

Symptoms of Treating Commitments Casually
• Not making and not keeping commitments
• Not fulfilling promises on time
• Always maintaining an “escape hatch” to avoid being held
accountable
• Not providing a clear “I commit” or “I do not commit”
• Making informal promises without a clear intention to
keep them

Angus, a leader in a technology company, was always quick to volun-
teer his help, such as offering to head up a project. But he did not keep
his promises consistently—big or small—and developed a reputation as
“I’ll promise you anything Angus.”
In working with Angus in a private leadership session, we counted 22
promises that he made and broke in less than 24 hours—from “I’ll be back
in 10 minutes” to “I’ll complete this by tomorrow morning.” We discov-
ered that Angus did not want to be held accountable for his promises and
treated his commitments casually with an “I’ll try” attitude versus an “I
will” mindset. He had an escape hatch every time he committed, and you
could never fault him.
The problem with Angus’s personal strategy of avoid commitment–avoid
accountability was that no one trusted him and no one could count on
him. He was not taken seriously by his peers, and he was passed over for
career advancement numerous times. Until our work with him, he was
unable to see how even his smallest repetitive behaviors impacted others.
Angus learned that he had burned a lot of bridges. He also learned that
every broken promise was added to a long list of offenses leaving people
disgusted and unwilling to support him.

The Impact of Treating Commitments Casually. When people cannot
trust your words, they judge you as unreliable. People notice when you
break a promise. They notice everything from small promises such as “I’ll
call you tomorrow” to big promises such as “You’ll have my report by
Friday.” It does not matter if promises are big or small. They are tallied in
one giant ledger against which you are judged.