I have a great appreciation for leaders who are good at the follow-through because I think one of my sweet spots lies in event planning and administration - which requires lots of attention to detail. I must admit; however, it took years to develop my skill-set and many failures on the job (details falling by wayside and many, many promises unkept) and I continue to learn and grow in this area to this day.
The problem is that many leaders promise things and under-deliver. As leaders it is vital to over-deliver. I, too, am constantly stretched in this area. When I don't keep a promise I consider it personal failure because it can discredit my leadership. I understand nobody is perfect but a promise kept and the extra attention to detail goes a long way. I like what Tim Sanders said on the subject recently in a post about fixing broken promises:
"One small broken promise can undermine your credibility with your troops, customers and friends. One way of reacting to this would be to stop promising anything. This, however, is a defensive strategy that will paint you as either noncomittal, wishy washy or unhelpful.
Here's a much better strategy: Manage your promise keeping ratio. To do that, you need to record your promises as well as their due date and then later review your track record. I challenge you to take ten minutes today to come up with a list of the promises you made last week at work, including promise dates. Next, take a look at how you are doing against that list. Miss a promise date last week? Immediately make a priority to keep it and send a note apologizing for missing the promise date. Have a promise date coming up today or tomorrow? Meet it on time or early. This is a habit. The more you do this, the more you'll improve your promise keeping ratio. Get this ratio right and you'll have credibility on your side."
Leadership Lesson #108: Keep your promises (and fix broken ones!) and give personal attention to the details. Following this lesson learned will help you become a far better leader than you ever imagined.
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Labels: Church, Issues, Leadership, Marketing, Resources, Students Only, Youth Pastors
Glad to hear that D-Mac is leading well at camp... that makes me proud! Looking forward to my first Centri-Kid experience as a group leader in two weeks! Have fun in Philly!
Yes, he was great to work with. However, it wasn't the same without our MayDay. Can't wait to hear about your experience. We had a good one.