Chapter 67.
Keep All Your
Smallest Promises

Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.

—Vincent van Gogh

People are motivated by people they trust.

The trust of your people is not difficult to obtain. You can win it. And because it’s so important to motivating them, you must win it.

So you must never ever be late to your own meetings. Ever. Such a thing will destroy all trust you’ve built up with seven out of 10 people, because it means to them that you cannot be counted on to keep your word.

We explained this to Jeff after working with his team for a while and noticing that he was not keeping any of his “small” promises.

“Hey, it’s no biggie!” Jeff would say. “I’m a little late, or I forget to get somebody a parking pass, so what? I’m a big-picture guy. I’m not all that anal.”

“It’s your word, Jeff. If you can’t keep it in the small things, no one will trust it in any of the big things.”

“Well,” said Jeff, “what should I do? Become someone I’m not? Get a personality transplant? Get some good drugs that keep me focused?”

“You must do everything you say you’re going to do for your people, when you say you’re going to do it. If you say you’ll call tomorrow, you must. If you say you’ll get them the documents by Friday, you must move heaven and earth to do that. It’s everything. Trust is earned, not just by the big things, but even more so by the little things. Even more so.”