I Got It !

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I remember when the boys were growing up, I was very careful about promises; especially to them.  If there was any possibility that something could get in the way of my word, I would tell them, “Dad isn’t going to promise this, because I’m not sure I can keep it”.  The boys learned that their dad was very careful with his promises. I’m a grandfather now and I still practice the “No Promises Unless I’m Sure” policy.

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While leading my team, there would be times when they needed me to engage on a specific topic; I would respond, “I Got It!”.  We worked in a high energy environment and inevitably, something would come up distracting my attention, resulting in NOT getting it.  In short, I would forget, and my intent and word were compromised.  Well, this became a running joke, “Mike said ‘He’s got it’ … who’s going to remind him this time?”.  There was never any malice, intentions were always good and we all would laugh.

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When I considered it, the joke really wasn’t funny!  I was compromising my integrity by being forgetful; well that was the excuse I used.  If the team is reading this, and some team members are, they will smile and say that it is no big deal.  We always had each other’s back.  But my conscience was bothered about not keeping my word.  To mitigate my behavior, I had to put things in place ensuring that I did not forget; I made sure that if I said that I would take care of something, it was taken care of, period; no excuses.  My integrity can be expressed in many forms. I like to use words like trustworthy, faithful, dependable, reliable, responsible, truthful, honest, constant and upright.  Words used interchangeably in our business world. Each one of those attributes are founded in the value of my word.  My integrity must begin there.

 

If I say, “I got it”, I get it!  … Get it?

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Mike.Rice@CornerStoneIT-llc.com

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