SayDoCo: Say what you will do, do what you say, and communicate when you can’t.

What is holding back the performance of your teams? Do you have a culture of accountability and an expectation that people will do what they say? Have you ever said “yeah, I’ll have that report done by 3PM’ when you knew darn well it wasn’t likely to happen? What happens to a team when a culture is built that says it’s OK to not honor your commitments?

I recently had the opportunity to hear Alan Fine present on team communication issues. Alan is one of the early pioneers of what now tends to be called coaching. His talk was great and he shared one nugget that has stuck with me the most over the last few months related to accountability and performance.

SayDoCo.

No. It’s not a new puzzle.

It stands for say what you will do, do what you say, and communicate when you can’t.

It’s not rocket science. In some ways  it’s nothing more than common courtesy. But, this simple mnemonic  device can go a long way towards creating a culture of trust and accountability within a team if a leader is willing to lead by example in saying what they will do, doing what they will say, and communicating when they won’t be able to honor a commitment for some reason.