Years ago I had a manager who always used to say that we’d get together every Friday to have a 1-2-1 and discuss how the week went.
We’d have a chat about what was coming up, any development opportunities for me and any issues I had that week.
Sounds great eh?
Except it never happened.
Not once.
The poor guy was really busy, so I didn’t blame him.
And you could see that he was uncomfortable in personal situations.
And there was always something that came up that was much more important than me.
So it was understandable really.
But…
The problem was that I pretty soon learned to disregard most of what he promised to do because he was always busy
Always uncomfortable.
Always reactive.
So did the rest of the team.
People notice when you don’t live up to your promises
If you say you’ll be having a 1-2-1 on the Friday then have it.
Or don’t say it.
But don’t say you will and then don’t.
Because people value actions more than words, and if you constantly break your promises then frankly your worlds mean nothing.