Pet Peeves and Promises

Prompt: Name your biggest pet peeve. Do you bring it to a person's attention when they annoy you with it. 

 I need to start by saying I don't necessarily get annoyed with this pet peeve; just a little sad. When I was a kid, like all kids, I had situations where I felt disappointed. Someone promises to take you shopping on Tuesday, and they don't. Someone tells you they'll pick you up for breakfast at Bob Evans, and they don't. Things like that are the ones I remember. 

As an eleven year old girl, sitting on a make-shift balance beam my dad and grandpa built me, I thought why can't people do what they say they'll do. 

The adults in my life were busy. They had many jobs, worked too many hours, and got too little recognition for their contribution. They had no idea how something as simple as cancelled plans, could shatter the hope of a little girl that had waited all week for it. 

I couldn't help but bring that forward into my adulthood. I became the person that means and does what they say. Always. If I tell you I'm not mad, I'm not mad. If I say I'll be there on Friday, I'll be there on Friday. If I promise to have something to you by the end of the day on Wednesday, come hell or high water, it will be there by the end of the day on Wednesday. No games, just straight forward communication is how I like it. It's what I understand and what I respect. Upholding my promises are an extension of my pride. I don't just do it for the people on the receiving end, I do it for myself and my integrity that I've worked really hard to curate. 

Now, I know not everyone share's that same sense of obligation to their word. It's a blessing and a curse because people respect me for it, but sometimes I have to sacrifice what I want for what I promised. For this very reason, I am conscientious of what I tell others I will do. I try hard not to over-promise or under-deliver. 

Fast forward to my thirties when I became an entrepreneur, this pet peeve still sticks. I wrote the book Fix This Next for Healthcare Providers, and low and behold, and this pet peeve has become a Core Need in a business's foundational SALES level. This level in a business symbolizes the creation of cash, and we all are all too familiar with the fact that we can't function without cash. At least not for long. 

For this reason, SALES in five different aspects are critical to a business's stability and ultimate success. The five core needs are: 

1. Lifestyle Congruence
2. Prospect & Provider Attraction
3. Client Conversion
4. Delivering on Commitments
5. Collecting on Commitments

Essentially, when all five needs are met at your SALES level, your business is stable and can shift its focus to higher-level needs. In case you didn't notice, take a look at number four. Delivering on Commitments, my pet peeve, do what you say you're going to do. Plain and simple. Period. 

When you advertise your product will be delivered at a specific day and time, and you don't deliver at that day and time, guess what. You have an unmet need at your SALES level. If you promote the fact that you can book a client for an appointment in 72 hours, you better deliver on that promise or have an unmet need in your SALES level. If you market a "pain-free" experience, you must be able to back that up 100%, or you have an unmet Core Need in your SALES level. 

I see more and more businesses with an unmet Delivering on Commitments need every single day, even my own.

It happens.

When I leave for lunch and attempt to find a drive-through to run through, and the line is backed up down the street—there's a commitment they're not delivering on. When I send a prescription to my local pharmacy, it's not ready in the thirty minutes they tell me, there's a commitment they're not delivering on. 

The bottom line is we're all guilty of it; we just don't always recognize it. Regardless of the type of business we own, it's important to have systems in place to ensure we deliver on all the commitments we make, both to our employees and our clients. Why? To uphold our promises—our integrity.

 You can start with one simple action:

1. Write down everything your business promises to its employees AND its customers, both stated and implied.

When you make a conscious effort to observe the actions that ultimately lead to the outcomes these promises promote, you can assess and develop a baseline. You want to know where you're doing well and where you need some work, then you can devise a plan to shore up these needs with simple systems that enforce accountability throughout all departments. 

We all want to run our business with integrity, and often it starts inward. What's important to us, and why does that matter. Then we can turn outward and put our thoughts and findings into actionable steps to make an even greater impact. 

Backstory: The first week of April, I flew to New Jersey to attend the Next Level Author workshop, hosted by Mike Michalowicz and AJ Harper. I stumbled upon a bookstore in which I got lost for nearly an hour. Not literally lost, but I couldn't stop looking, imagining, and soaking it all in. A journal called 500 Writing Prompts captured my attention, and I bought it. Then I committed to using one random prompt per day to share with my readers. (Oh, and I limit these writing sessions to only 45 minutes, so I can't promise perfection!)

This story is inspired by my upcoming release of Fix This Next for Healthcare Providers. If you haven't already, check it out on Amazon. It's available for pre-order.