As The Boss, you will only succeed if your direct reports respect you. If you’re respected, you might eventually be liked. But if your people only like you, you may never be respected.
To get respect, do what you say you will do.
Every two years, political candidates promise all sorts of things they’ll do if elected. Rarely do they follow through. Athletes guarantee a victory, but there’s a 50-50 chance they fulfill that promise. All of us can probably remember a parent or a partner promising us something and then failing to deliver.
In every case, we lose respect for that person.
As The Boss, you can’t afford that.
How can you do a better job of doing what you say you’ll do?
- Promise only what you can guarantee. To be honest, you can guarantee very little. Set your expectations low and build trust by winning in smaller, less risky situations.
- When you say “I’ll get back to you” Get back to them! In my son’s role as an area manager at a huge distribution center, he makes a point to give an answer when one of his team asks a question. If he doesn’t know the answer, he lets them know he’ll get back to them. And he does. Make a note, send yourself a text or do whatever you can to remind yourself to follow through.
- Hold your team responsible for part of the task you promised. This will help your delegation skills and get them to take ownership rather than relying solely on you for the answer.
Being The Boss is a demanding job but goes much better when you have the respect of your team. Be a reasonable promise-maker and an outstanding promise-keeper and you’ll have much more success.
