I don’t often get worked up, but one thing that I value above all other personal and professional values in life is INTEGRITY.
Image Credit to Bolstablog
Either people have less of it these days or I’m hanging around with the wrong people. I admit we all have flaws, we all make mistakes and can’t always be true to our word.
I am aiming this post at those people who fail to turn up to events or appointments, don’t treat deadlines seriously, don’t follow up or get back to you, forget about things all together, hold you up, constantly reschedule or fail to prioritize their own schedules and work at the expense of others’ valuable time.
Stop it. It’s rude, it’s disrespectful and it’s totally unnecessary.
I get that emergencies come up, that software failures caused your online calendar not to sync or an urgent crisis appeared. I will forgive you for that and be understanding because that’s life. So long as you attempt an email or phone call to let me know ahead of time.
I won’t forgive lousy time management, shoddy memories or something that seemed like a more attractive option that you went with instead.
I believe entrepreneurs can be particularly prone to over promising and under-delivering (from my own personal experiences). We aim to please, to be better, to improve the lives of others with the products and services we develop and deliver.
Then we realize we’re totally overburdened, stressed out, taken on one too many things and balls start to drop. So why not acknowledge that and do something about it? Here’s my thoughts on the matter:
5 Top Ways to attract more integrity into your life
- Start with yourself
You’re brilliant, yes you are. You just need to gain some focus and respect your limitations. People will get it if you say no, sorry I can’t do that, I can’t meet this week or I can’t start that project for another two weeks.
The minute you set more realistic expectations for yourself you will find you’re able to commit, produce the results and follow through on your word.
- Demand more of others
There’s no harm in telling people in your personal and professional life how you like to conduct yourself and the type of behavior you expect from them in return. You may have different values so you need to let them know what yours are and what you appreciate and like.
If you don’t tell them how will they know? You do it for your employees why not do the same for your clients and customers?
- Be selective
If people don’t respect you or let you down or then simply don’t deal with them again. This goes for customers, clients and even friends.
It’s called filtering out the flakes to let in the fantastic people!. You owe it to yourself to surround yourself with brilliant, wonderful people who you respect and admire and know that this feeling is mutual.
- Set strong policies
Set clear guidelines for those you interact with, whether it’s your turnaround time for communicating with them, how your week usually looks, when you allot time for meetings vs work clients, team time etc.
The more upfront you are from the beginning the better it will be for both parties. They’ll know what they can expect and how to deal with you and you won’t have to repeatedly push back each time a boundary is crossed.
- Just be better This goes for everyone (and most definitely me). Do one small thing every day that makes you a better person. Turn up to that meeting 5 minutes early, send that follow up email you delayed on, call a client just to connect, introduce people that could benefit each other, do a favor for a friend just because, send a thank you card because you can. Just do it.
And please give me your top tip for ensuring that flakiness is banished forever, I could do with some.
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