The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #5—Don’t Overpromise and Underdeliver
The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #5—Don’t Overpromise and Underdeliver
I’ve been discussing the 10 commandments of effective leadership — based on T.D. Jakes‘ opening message at the Pastors and Leadership conference held earlier this year in Dallas, Texas.
The fifth of the 10 commandments of effective leadership says ”Thou shalt not overpromise and underdeliver.”
The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #1—Don’t Lead Beyond Your Own Exposure
Don’t Overpromise and Underdeliver
Disappointment will kill relationships in your life if you bait and switch.
Bait and switch is a sales tactic in which a customer is attracted by the advertisement of a low-priced item but is then encouraged to buy a higher-priced one (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).
If you don’t want to be a leader that overpromise and underdeliver, you have to constantly ask yourself: Do people get what I advertised when they get me or is my advertisement better than my reality?
Bring your reality up or bring your advertisement down
If you can’t bring your reality up, then you have to bring your advertisement down because it is better to under-promise and over-deliver than to overpromise and underdeliver.
Disappointments will make people to stop listening to you because they’ve heard it all before. If you are preaching change but not producing change, people will come for a while but when don’t see what you said, they will gradually leave.
People will stop going to KFC if they can’t find the chicken. People will stop checking the vending machine if Coca-Cola run out of soft drinks.
If you can’t bring your reality up, then you have to bring your advertisement down — T.D. Jakes
The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #3—Don’t Reward Nepotism
Adjust your expectations
To keep the fifth commandment of effective leadership as a leader, you need to be able to tell people if you can’t get something done. It is better to adjust the expectation than to live in the atmosphere of disappointment.
If you observe that you keep taking more and more and more on yourself because you are the leader and have not set any boundaries for yourself, maybe you need to get help.
The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #4—Don’t Avoid Confrontation
Don’t promise everybody everything
If you keep saying yes to everything, you are snared by the words of your own mouth and people won’t believe you for anything because you’ve promised more than you can deliver.
Bring down your expectations and let your people know what they can count on you for. Don’t promise everybody everything.
What are you personally doing to help you deliver on their promises?
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