Keeping Promises

Many of us will launch this New Year by proclaiming resolutions that will serve as personal goals for the next twelve months. Losing weight and exercising often top these lists. Apparently the tradition of making resolutions has been with us for thousands of years. Ancient Babylonians had a practice of returning borrowed objects from the previous year, the Chinese cleaned their houses, and Romans sought forgiveness from the previous year’s enemies.

Making promises or setting personal priorities seems like good discipline for any modern leader. These goals can serve as a catalyst for meaningful, long-term change, especially if others know about our aspirations. My daily exercise routine (walking through my neighborhood in the early morning hours) has been sustained because I invited others to hold me accountable. Eventually the health benefits and discipline of habit made keeping this pledge a way of life.

Promises are simple declarations that we will do something, or perhaps refrain from doing something. As leaders it is tempting and easy to make promises with little regard for the effort required to see it through to fruition. Sometimes this process has less to do with outcomes and more to do with annual ritual. Organizational leaders routinely gather to establish goals with little or no thought about how the objectives will be achieved.

It’s time for leaders to make promises that they intend to keep. This is no time for ego to take charge. Personal and organizational goals should be rooted in reality with backup plans in place for the inevitable unknown obstacles that will appear. Choosing a course of action or establishing priorities has more to do with integrity than predicting an outcome. It takes courage to admit that we don’t know whether our plans will achieve the expected results. Even greater courage is required to acknowledge defeat when the wrong path is taken.

Leaders need to establish priorities and resolve to keep them. At the same time they must admit when a promise isn’t practical or when a goal is in trouble. Telling the truth and seeking help may be all that is needed to reclaim the objective or find the alternative route to take.

The root meaning of resolution includes the act of analyzing a complex notion into simpler ones. Could it be that the best promises, the most effective goals, the clearest objectives are also the least pretentious? Might keeping our priorities simple be the key to successful implementation? Let’s make 2008 the year when these questions are answered.