The Scam We’ve Been Taught To Use: To Underpromise and Overdeliver. 4 Reasons Why We Underpromise and Overdeliver.

To underpromise and overdeliver.

That’s a scam created by incompetent people and taught to us to “delight” clients. We’ve all drunk the cool aid — and in a way, it’s a way to save our asses. To not look bad when we screw up or life happens.

It has to do more with how we see ourselves and what we try to project.

4 Reasons To Underpromising and Overdelivering

1. Incompetence

Competence “is the technical part of the job. Having confidence in the outcome and being able to produce the right result.”

Not knowing the possible results might just mean that we haven’t gained the competence to it. And that’s OK. You can work on it and be clear about it. If you’re new to the thing, you’re new. If you’re incompetent, that’s a different story. In any way, our clients don’t have to pay for incompetence being disguised as underpromising.

2. Covering Our Asses

The fault at making and keeping promises. It feels too risky to make a promise that might not be fulfilled. So we go under, “just in case” we can’t fully deliver. We’re covering our asses. [bad move, no cookies for you]

3. No Boundaries

It’s just a way to over commit ourselves. We don’t know how to say No. So to avoid that uncomfortable moment, we offer things under, because we know we’ll have more to do. We might have screwed big time before by promising things we didn’t know and when time comes, we just wanna be safe.

4. Lack of Confidence

We compensate for it. What if our clients don’t see our work as that valuable? We have to do more. We have to prove that we go beyond the expected. Because that’s how we can get great work and referrals, right?

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