Under-Promise, Over-Deliver!
No matter what your position is in the professional world, you make promises every single day. You promise your time, you promise your effort, and you promise results. If you put yourself under the pressure of being a people pleaser or just want to make sure that people know you are doing a good job, you might be quick to make promises that are hard to keep, which can create unnecessary pressures. Today, I’m going to share a valuable lesson I learned from a partner early in my career that has helped me tremendously, the concept of: “Under-Promise, Over-Deliver”
What Does “Under-Promise, Over-Deliver” Mean?
This concept is meant to help people who suffer from the trap of OVER-promising and UNDER-delivering. These people typically are quick to reply to requests and do everything they can to make sure things are taken care of timely, but take on too much at a time, ultimately leading to less than ideal results such as deliverables being late or of poor quality. This occurs all the time in the professional world, including:
When an employee needs to get something done for their boss
When a CPA working in public accounting needs to get something to the client
When a CEO or a company needs to get something to the board of directors or investors
Remember, wanting to make people happy and do good work is not necessarily a bad thing. However, if proper consideration isn't given before communicating timelines or results, things can end badly. For these people, a mindset shift is necessary to start UNDER-promising and OVER-delivering. The core idea of under promising and over delivering is based on two core concepts:
In order to be (or appear to be) successful in the professional world, people want to please others and take on work or lend a helping hand where they can, which can lead to always saying yes to requests.
When people feel too much pressure about deadlines, deliverables, or performance, it has a negative impact on their productivity and work product. This is because that added pressure becomes a mental distraction when there is too much of it.
For example, let’s say a manager is asking a staff person to complete a task:
The over-promising, under-delivering staff would immediately say yes to the request and let the manager know it will be done before end of day, even if they have other work assigned to them already. The staff will then juggle this responsibility with the other work they already had, resulting in split focus and not as much attention to detail while completing the task. Ultimately, this ended up in a rushed product given to the manager at the very end of the day with no time for questions or discussion.
The under-promising, over-delivering staff would take inventory of what needs to be done before responding, and let the manager know that there are a few things that need to be cleared up before they start on the task. Without multiple deadlines weighing on them, this staff is able to finish their other work without distraction and move on to the new project in the afternoon, free of any other obligation.
When you compare these staff, the under-promising, over-delivering staff experienced less stress, and worked more efficiently while not having the manager rely on representations that it will get done ASAP. Ultimately, these differences make a big difference in the amount of work and stress a staff can work through. Ironically, the people pleasers that tend to over promise and under deliver will please more people if they start to under promise and over deliver.
But remember, the process of under-promising and over-delivery is an art, not a science, and the worst thing you can do is under promise to the point where it makes you look incompetent. If you think something may take you 4 hours, quoting 6 or 8 hours as a buffer is good to under-promise with, but quoting 3 days would make someone question your competence. It's important to find that balance between getting some extra time to address any sudden distractions or finer details of a request and completing the request in a timely manner. You will learn how to strike that balance as you have these conversations and learn how to set reasonable expectations with a little bit of wiggle room. The next time you get a request at work, be sure to under promise to give yourself enough time to do it right and then over deliver by beating expectations with that extra time.