Promises, Promises

Nobody Cares How Awesome You Are at Your Job

Businessweek

Bending over backward to honor a promise may not do you much good, according to new research from Ayelet Gneezy and Nicholas Epley. The duo tracked three types of promises — “broken ones, kept ones, and then ones that were fulfilled beyond expectations” — and found that overdelivering on promises doesn’t get you much of a boost in satisfaction. Epley says this is because a promise is similar to a verbal contract: The expectation is that you will or won’t fulfill it. However, when someone hopes for something that isn’t explicitly promised, exceeding expectations is beneficial. “If you can guarantee an outcome, you’ll make your customers (or bosses) happiest when you promise it,” suggests Businessweek’s Claire Suddath. “But if you’re not sure you can do it — or if you think you can do it even better — you might not want to promise anything and surprise them instead.”