Restoring Confidence Means Creating Certainty
Are you good at restoring confidence? Do you believe that confident employees and customers matter?
A lack of confidence means worry. Worry means hesitation, procrastination, and delays. Delays within employee teams and delays in meeting the expectations of the customer.
Many people are facing new challenges when navigating the workplace. And now, more than ever, more people are working from home (WFH), and as such workflow and communication have changed. Certainty is at a premium and uncertainty is commonplace.
Timelines, metrics and measurements are keys to successful navigation.
When the boss asks, “When will we get an update on the project?” or when the customer asks, “When will my order ship?” how do you respond?
I’m waiting on one more piece from the team, we’ll have something together soon.
Your order should ship out by Friday.
Neither response makes an exact commitment. The unknown is hard to navigate.
Certainty builds confidence.
Restoring Confidence
A common reaction is to stretch the truth, be vague, and hope everything works out for the best. In reality, everyone is being short-changed.
People beg for transparency, truth, and certainty. In most cases, this is a transaction. It’s a transaction that can have the outcome of restoring confidence or the outcome of uncertainty and disappointment.
When we reassure with direct, not dodged, or fuzzy answers, we have a chance to change the level of confidence, certainty, and even manage the disappointment.
Better to say that the project will be finished by the end of the day tomorrow, or the order will be on the truck on Friday. Wiggle words don’t sound the same as a certainty, and its especially unlikely that they will restore confidence.
-DEG
Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.
