The habit of meaning what you say

The habit of meaning what you say is one of the safest ways to build long term trusted relationships.

It requires honesty, empathy, and clarity.

The honesty to only promise to others what you can keep (and be open to say so if you can’t).

The empathy to understand that this is what they need.

The clarity to speak so that others get what you mean.

A surprisingly large amount of frustration around broken promises stems from a lack of the latter. What we said was not we meant. At least it’s not what they thought we meant.

You need all three.