The older I get, the more I realize hard skills are commoditized. Anyone can learn to build a certain function in Excel, write copy that sells or remember what’s on slide 37 of the pitch deck.
What’s much harder to learn, takes longer to shape and very rare to find are soft skills that make people loyal, reliable and trustworthy.
There’s a whole lot of them, like patience, listening, not talking down on people, and so on. But out of all of them, if I could recommend only a single one to you, it would be this:
Do what you say you’ll do. Follow through. Never let your words get ahead of your actions.
Especially in marketing, experts often throw around advice like: Underpromise and overdeliver! Or even: Overpromise and overdeliver. Yeah, right. Why don’t we start with doing just what we promised?
The world would already be a far better place if everyone just did what they said they would.
I think 99% of problems people cause both for themselves and for other people are the result of them saying they will do something and then not doing it. It happens at home, it happens at work, it happens among friends.
- I’ll send you the slides tomorrow.
- I’ll be at your dance recital.
- I’ll clean the kitchen this week.
- I’ll meet you guys for lunch at 1 PM.
- I’ll get back to you on this.
- I’ll only have one beer tonight.
- I’ll just say hello, 15 minutes tops.
- I’ll set up the meeting.
- I’ll take 6 exams this semester.
- I’ll remember to bring milk.
- I’ll send you a new article each week.
…and then we don’t.
Broken promises lead to broken trust. I can’t tell you how many blogs I’ve stopped reading because at one point, the owner broke their promise.
I’m not perfect. No one is. I mess up too. But whatever my follow-through percentage is, it’s higher than for most of the people I’ve met in my life.
When I promise something, that promise means everything to me. Come hell or high water. Even if it means I’m lying sick on my couch at home, forcing my fingers across the keyboard.
It’s one of the things my closest friends point out as most remarkable about me and the character trait I take the most pride in.
Out of all the great things you could do in this life, I think the greatest is to simply do what you say you’ll do.
“Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.” — Mark Twain
