Friday, October 17, 2008

On Being Your Word: A 45 Day Challenge

There’s a lot of books and courses out there on leadership and success filled with the how to’s of being successful, managing your career, climbing the ladder, being a great entrepreneur and leadership. A lot of them are good books with good advice and written by people have already achieved a certain stature. So what’s the catch? Why, with so many helpful hints and tips and pathways are not more businesses showing healthy growth, or more people living there dreams.
I think it’s because there isn’t enough attention paid to one key and very basic element: Being Your Word. With all the complexity that is delivered it seems like a too simple thing; so simple that most dismiss it with a waive, or one of those “don’t be so naïve” looks.
The thing is; it works and I can tell you it isn’t as simple or as easy as the words imply. God knows it’s becoming an overworked phrase that people hear but don’t listen to.

I’ve considered myself one of those people who honor my word and boasted about it. Yet I was caught short recently. I had decided to do a couple of courses offered by a U.S. Coaching company that I will be doing some business with. Part of the decision was to become familiar with their model and the other part was to get a better handle on their core values. The first course was becoming an accountability coach so you can imagine how often I heard the phrase “be your word”. Well, I completed the course and I, like other participants, achieved that goal about 50% of the time. It was good enough or so we thought. The second course was designed for real estate agents, and it was about building a successful business. Yup another magic potion. To my surprise the content was actually very good but there was that phrase again. I remember thinking to myself that it was easy for these guys to keep nattering about it but things happen don’t they. The kids are sick or the school is calling; a meeting ran late or the boss has you working so much over-time you can’t hear yourself think or for that matter see straight. Or there is so much going on that you just forgot. All good reasons, so, I just tuned the damned phrase out – that is until one afternoon as I was sitting in on the weekly tele-class. There I was, sitting in a parking lot on a hot summer afternoon, phone pressed to my ear – half listening as I was managing some other paper work when I actually got it. To this day I’m still not sure what exactly the moderator said differently but it hit me and I heard. My business was not a raging success and if truth be known I was about to throw in the towel and go back to the big corporate job once owned. So why wasn’t it more successful? I had to face it. I had not followed through on more than half the ideas I had told myself I would put into motion. So what would happen if I kept those promises to myself and actually did follow through? It wasn’t that the ideas were bad, or the intention was faulty. I was not my word with myself. It wasn’t even the big things as much as it was the little everyday things.
Being your word means being at the top of your game. It means never forgetting. It means never over-promising to impress. It means high standards of performance, focusing on the outcome and flawless execution. It means honesty and trust that is earned. It means never having to be worried about being transparent, or scrambling to make up the difference on something that has fallen short. It’s about turning up every moment of everyday full present and accounted for. It’s not about being taken advantage of as some people claim, or being trampled on because bad things happen to honest people. None of that can happen if you are fully conscious of what you are promising. If you can’t guarantee it then don’t offer it.
So, I set my own challenge and decided that for 45 days, I would be my word no matter what. And guess what? I started to see results. Am I still working to build a ragingly successful business? You bet! But I’m working smart and having a blast.

So, I challenge you. Take 45 days and be your word on everything including the promises you make yourself. If you find you are faltering, step back, review and re-organize so that what you are promising is manageable and doable. I already know that it will be tough because sometimes life and work are moving too fast with deadlines that are often not set by you. And that’s when you again step back and re-assess, re-group, re-assess again and come up with a solution that will work for all concerned. You absolutely do have the power to do this whether it’s by yourself or with a superb team that you can rally. See if you don’t find that you too are working smarter and coming up with solutions that lead to success.

Oh- and if you are wondering why 45 days. Well, it takes 30 days to break a habit and one second to fall back into the same old same old. If you can break a habit in 30 days than another 15 is the building of a new one.

Ellen Smith
Strategic Coach
En Course
http://www.en-course.com/

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