Either Do It or Stop Pretending You’ll Do It
And if you aren’t going to do it, tell the affected people right away. It’s just simple courtesy.
I know a man who always has many ideas about projects that are underway at his church. Darryl leaps to volunteer for committees. He attends meetings and signs up for tasks, but he never does anything he commits to do. This puts the other committee members in a bind, as they were expecting him to take an action or produce some deliverable by an agreed-upon date. Despite his enthusiasm, Darryl is completely unreliable.
I don’t understand this all-too-common behavior. My feeling is that if you commit to doing something, either you do it or you notify those who are affected as soon as possible that you won’t be doing it. That seems like a simple matter of courtesy to me.
Certainly, things change. We might make a commitment in good faith, fully expecting to deliver, but then something comes up that blocks us from fulfilling the commitment. Or maybe you’re going to be late completing a task for some reason. That happens. All I ask is that you let me know what to expect so I can take appropriate actions to adapt to the new reality. Too often, though, people don’t.
