A Thousand Tiny Broken Promises
“We’ll probably get round to working on that later”
“I’ll get back to you on this shortly”
“We might be able to do that”
“We have this planned for a few months’ time”
You might not take any of the above literally, but your members do. When you don’t come through, don’t provide the update, or don’t make the change, you lose your credibility.
A promise based upon a probability is still a promise that you have a reasonable understanding of the probability (or possibility) the event/action will happen.
Don’t make a promise you’re unlikely to keep to avoid disappointing members. It’s usually better to just say “no, sorry, this can’t/won’t happen yet because…”.
Members might not like the response, but at least they have clarity.
Don’t fudge your answers, be clear and specific.
Besides, it’s far better to say “no” now and delight members later than say “possibly” now and disappoint members later.
