The size of the promise

Two swimming coaches in Doha teach the same children, in the same kind of pool, for about the same fee.

The first promises parents that their child will be swimming a full length within a month. The second promises that their child will stop being afraid of the water.

After four weeks, most of the children in both groups have reached roughly the same place. They can float, kick across half the pool, and put their faces in without panic.

The first coach's parents are disappointed. The second coach's parents are telling their friends.

Same effort, same lessons, opposite verdicts. The difference was decided before the first lesson, by the size of the promise each coach chose to make.

This is true almost everywhere. A modest job done completely feels like generosity. A grand job done eighty per cent of the way feels like failure, and all the care that went into the eighty per cent is forgotten. We do not judge work in isolation. We judge it against what we were told to expect.

The pressure, of course, runs in one direction. Competitors promise more, so we promise more. Our own nerves whisper that a modest promise will lose the customer. So the promise grows faster than our ability to keep it.

There are really only two decisions. First, choose a promise that fits the problem in front of you and the people you are serving. Second, make sure you can deliver all of it, every time, with something to spare.

Which promise you make is not a marketing detail added at the end. It is the decision that sets how every hour of your work will be measured.