{"id":5538,"date":"2010-03-17T04:00:32","date_gmt":"2010-03-17T09:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/2010\/03\/keeping-your-word.html"},"modified":"2010-03-17T04:00:32","modified_gmt":"2010-03-17T09:00:32","slug":"keeping-your-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/keeping-your-word\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping Your Word"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Several months ago, a former executive at our company made a commitment to a third-party via email. It is obvious that he didn\u2019t research the cost of his promise, nor did he get anyone else\u2019s approval. I was not aware of the obligation until the other party brought it to our attention. When I learned that the commitment was north of six figures, I gasped.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/iStock_000000381585Small.jpg\" width=\"570\" height=\"356\" alt=\"iStock_000000381585Small.jpg\" title=\"iStock_000000381585Small.jpg\" class=\"Man with His Fingers Crossed Behind His Back - Photo courtesy of \u00a9iStockphoto.com\/P_Wei, Image #381585\" \/><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:10px; line-height:12px; margin-bottom:10px; margin-top:-12px; padding:0px; text-align:center; width:570px;\">Photo courtesy of \u00a9iStockphoto.com\/P_Wei<\/div>\n<p>Several rationalizations immediately popped into my head:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"singlespace\">The executive is no longer at the company.<\/li>\n<li class=\"singlespace\">He obviously didn\u2019t count the cost.<\/li>\n<li class=\"singlespace\">He wasn\u2019t authorized to make this commitment.<\/li>\n<li class=\"singlespace\">This project is already under water.<\/li>\n<li class=\"singlespace\">This amount is not in our budget.<\/li>\n<li class=\"singlespace\">I wasn\u2019t even aware of the commitment.<\/li>\n<li class=\"singlespace\">Our CFO wasn\u2019t aware of the commitment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>However, after a few moments, I remembered that our first core value at Thomas Nelson is \u201cHonoring God.\u201d We amplify this by saying that \u201cWe honor God in everything we do.\u201d We then go on to describe the behaviors that express this value. The fourth item on the list is this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We honor our commitments, even when it is difficult, expensive, or inconvenient.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That brought everything into clear focus. This was initially motivated by Psalm 15:1,4:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? &#8230; He who swears to his own hurt and does not change.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Simply put, this means that our word is sacred. I don\u2019t think it is claiming too much to say that this premise is the foundation of Western society. Without it, our society begins to fall apart.<\/p>\n<p>When I was growing up a promise and a hand-shake were all you needed. Contracts were largely foreign and unnecessary. In fact, to insist on one would have been an insult. Why? Because a man\u2019s word was his bond. No one was willing to risk their social capital or relational equity by breaking their word.<\/p>\n<p>My, how times have changed.<\/p>\n<p>Twice in the last month I have had people blatantly dishonor their own word. Both were under contract. Their obligations were explicit. There was no ambiguity.<\/p>\n<p>This is tragic\u2014especially for them.<\/p>\n<p>Keeping your word is the essence of <em>integrity<\/em>. As Stephen Covey points out, \u201chonesty is making your words conform to reality. Integrity is making reality conform to your words.\u201d It is essential to leadership.  Without it, you cannot be an effective leader.<\/p>\n<p>Why?<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Integrity is required for trust.<\/strong> If people can\u2019t trust your word, they won\u2019t trust you.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Trust is necessary for influence.<\/strong> People <em>choose<\/em> those they let influence them, and this is based largely on trust.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Influence is essential for impact.<\/strong> You can\u2019t make the impact you want to make unless you can influence others and shift their behavior.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Yes, keeping your word is sometimes difficult, expensive, and inconvenient. But the cost of not doing so is even <em>more expensive.<\/em> It will ultimately cost you your leadership.<\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000033; font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;margin-bottom:16px;\">Questions: Have you had a recent situation someone did not honor their word? What impact did it have on you?<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Several months ago, a former executive at our company made a commitment to a third-party via email. It is obvious that he didn\u2019t research the cost of his promise nor did he get anyone else\u2019s approval. Neither I nor my CFO was aware of the obligation until the other party brought it to our attention. When I learned that the commitment was north of six figures, I gasped.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1502,755,148,1503,33,1504,251],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Keeping Your Word | Full Focus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/keeping-your-word\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Keeping Your Word | Full Focus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Several months ago, a former executive at our company made a commitment to a third-party via email. 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