Many of you will know how important it is to keep your promises. It's a measure of the worth of a person and of an organization.
Striving to keep your promises improves both personal and corporate integrity without which organizations cannot behave ethically.
That is why building a promise culture is at the heart of effective compliance programs. This involves building habits that reinforce the act of promise keeping.
A habit worth considering is to evaluate promises before they are made. The following questions will help assess a promise and improve the probability of keeping it:
Is the obligation and commitment clear?
Do you have a plan on how we will keep this promise?
Do you understand the risks; what threats and opportunities will you encounter in keeping this promise?
Do you have everything you need to keep this promise?
Do you know when this promise has been met; how will you measure progress or status?
How will you hold yourself accountable?
Building these questions into your compliance program will improve organizational integrity and reinforce a culture of promise keeping.
However, you don't need to wait for that to happen. Compliance leadership can begin with you.
Establishing this habit can start today by incorporating these questions as part of the way you contend with personal obligations. Who knows what might happen when others follow your example.
Wouldn't that be something.