If your actions could talk, what would they say about you? Would they say that you are a reliable, go-getter who follows-through and gets things done or a flaky big-talker who overpromises and never delivers?
Take a look at your actions. Are you constantly missing deadlines? Do you let ideas languish on your to-do list? Do you neglect to follow-up immediately after meetings and conference calls? Do you miss important milestones because you forgot?
How to Solidify or Destroy Your Business Reputation in 3 Easy Steps
#1: Deliver on Promises – If you promise that your widget will increase uptime by 20%, it darn well better. If you say you are going to do something, do it. Whatever you promise, deliver it – on time, under budget and in the right color, shape, texture or whatever your customers expect.
Let’s face it – meeting expectations is the minimum standard in today’s service spectacular culture where companies bend over backwards to dazzle and impress their social media savvy patrons. Why? Because they know their happy customers will talk.
What happens if you miss the mark? Own it and make amends. When a recent widespread outage left Hootsuite customers without their beloved owl and even though their official policy only promised compensation for more extended outages, Hootsuite made it right anyway.
#2: Talk Less, Do More – It’s easy to say that you’re going to do such and such….someday (because someday is a magical far off time that could possibly never ever arrive). Instead of bragging about what you are going to do, just do.
People take notice of action – even if you don’t tell them about it beforehand. They also take notice of people who are always talking big and never really do all that much.
#3: Take Immediate Action – The trouble with taking action is often we start off with good intentions and then other stuff just gets in the way. The best way to get in the habit of always taking action is to take action immediately.
For example, if you finish up a conference call where you discuss the details of an upcoming project, follow-up with an email immediately after the call outlining the next steps and attach timelines.
Often taking immediate action means you need to build that into your schedule. The key is to always leave enough time for follow-up. A good rule of thumb is to leave 10 minutes for every hour of meeting time.
This week’s Momentum Monday challenge is to take action on one big idea that you have been sitting on, waiting for that perfect opportunity.