It’s time to make the critical shift from leading the business by yourself to leading an organization of people. At P2Excellence, we help you navigate the uncharted territories of organizational growth with clarity and confidence.
I still remember the picture my former boss had on his wall. The picture showed two men standing in a farmer’s field, with a small farm house in the background. The farmer had obviously just stepped away from his plow and walked across the freshly plowed rows, to speak to a middle aged man in a suit. They were leaning forward preparing to shake hands.
My boss said it was an old insurance advertisement, from back in the day when insurance brokers met their clients out in the fields and in their shops. The picture reminded my boss of an earlier time when “once you shook hands, the deal was done.” No contracts. Just your word. Your word was your bond. How you handled your promises was the backbone of your reputation. And reputation mattered.
Reputation mattered to my boss. In any conflict, one of his first questions was always, “What did we say?” Meaning, “What did we promise? What was our pledge?”
Even in today’s fast-paced, flexible-meaning world, I still want to believe reputation matters. I want to protect my reputation. I want to believe people “know me” and “know they can count on me.” I bet you feel the same. It’s easy to point out lots of people we can’t trust. But the work is not in judging others, it’s in being a person of trust and integrity.
Like you, I am working to guard my own reputation, with the goal that people know they can trust me, believing that a hand shake is enough.
That is my thought for today and I welcome yours.
