“I promise I’ll communicate better about out of stocks. Trust me.”

“I promise I’ll visit that unsold account. I’m all over it.”

“Have no fear boss, I promise I’ll get that invoice mess up cleaned by the end of the week.”

“I promise I can run that will call on Monday.”

“I promise you I actually did stop by and try to contact the buyer. But no luck. I promise I’ll try again next week.”

If you’re in the habit of making promises that the boss or your customers have heard before, keep one thing in mind: they were probably burned last time. Not by you, but by your competitors or previous co-workers. This means your competition and your previous co-workers have a direct impact on your job if you’re saying you’ll do the same things they said they would have done.

Don’t mess with promises. Better yet, don’t promise at all.

Instead just do it.