407 - Why Dependability Beats Talent Every Time!

0:00Bruce Whipple:I want to talk about the single most important trait I ever looked for when hiring, and it's probably not the one you'd expect. And it directly relates to you, because whether you are building a board, selecting your law firm or accounting firm, or deciding which prospect in terms of an acquisition you want to be teamed with, it's something that will be critical to. For years in my corporate role, I interviewed and hired a lot of people. I sat across from talented folks constantly, strong resumes, sharp answers, big personalities. Over time, I realized the thing I was actually hunting for wasn't talent.

0:43Bruce Whipple:It was dependability. Let me be blunt about how much this mattered to me then and how much it still does. You could be the most talented person in the world. and if you're not dependable, if I can't count on you, I have no interest in working with you, none. Here's the reason. If I can't count on you, I never actually get access to that talent in the first place. Think about that for a second. Someone can be the most gifted person in the room and if I can't count on them to deliver what they said when they said it was going to be delivered, that talent might as well not exist. I can't build on it.

1:27Bruce Whipple:I can't put the product in front of a client. I can't hand them anything that matters. The talent is real, but it's locked in a box and I don't have the key. A dependable person of moderate talent beats a brilliant person I have to chase every single time. So how do you become that dependable person or Or how do you spot one? A lot of it comes down to one habit. And I would write this down. Under promise and over deliver. Simple example. You ask me for something and I tell you that I'll have it to you by Friday. Privately, I'm fairly confident I can get it by Wednesday. So when I deliver it Wednesday or even Thursday, I look like a hero.

2:16Bruce Whipple:I beat the deadline. You got it early. and you can trust me a little more than you did the day before. Now flip it. I say I'll deliver it Friday. Friday arrives and you have nothing. Maybe you were counting on that piece to finish your report. Maybe a client was counting on you to get them something. Now not only you, but now I'm undependable. And that word sticks. Here's what people underestimate. Reputation compounds. Do the under-promise and over-deliver thing consistently, and you build a reputation where people simply relax when your name is on something. They stop checking. They stop worrying.

3:04That is an enormous professional asset, and most people never earn it. The opposite reputation is brutal, and plenty of people carry it without even knowing. It's the one where the moment you say you'll handle it, the other person thinks, okay, I better follow up like a madman because in my experience, this is probably not going to happen. Once you've earned that reputation, every promise you make gets mentally discounted. People may smile and nod, but then they're going to quietly go do it by themselves, perhaps. That's exhausting for them, and it caps you. Now, one honest caveat, because this habit can be misused.

3:53The goal is not to sandbag every deadline so wildly that you look like a hero for doing ordinary work. Smart people see through that fast. The real skill is giving an honest, slightly conservative estimate that accounts for what usually goes wrong, and something usually goes wrong, and then protecting that commitment fiercely. Dependability isn't a trick. It's a standard you hold yourself to, and it shows up in the small things first. The meeting you said you'd attend, the follow-up email you promised, the quick favor. People watch the small commitments to decide whether they can trust you with the big ones.

4:38You don't get to be dependable on what matters and flaky on what doesn't matter. It's one reputation built or broken in small moments. So if you're building a team or acquiring a business, think about that. Think about talent is easier to find than reliability. And you can teach skills to a dependable person far more easily than you can instill dependability into a brilliant flake. And a big piece of how that happens and how you develop that is through discipline. And that is the reason that I ended up recently doing the course on motivation, discipline, and action. Discipline is a big, big piece of that.

5:31Bruce Whipple:And remember, talent gets you in the room. Dependability is what makes people hand you the keys. I hope that helps. If you're interested in that course, go over to brucewhipple.com slash M-D-A, and you can see what that course entails. But under-promise, over-deliver is a great skill to develop and to consistently use.