Being reliable is a crucial part of leading. Businesses count on leaders to get things done. Being reliable means being counted on and delivering successfully, time and time again. Reliability is built. The more you perform, the more will be asked of you because you have proven yourself a reliable resource to get things done, and quite frankly, things need done.
One of my favorite things is hearing people get frustrated that their manager keeps asking more and more of them. They see it as an inconvenience, but I see it as an opportunity. The manager isn’t asking them to do more and more things outside of their daily tasks because they aren’t performing well. They are being asked to do more and more things because they have established themselves as reliable. I love when a manager/supervisor asks something of me that is off my normal daily tasks. It communicates to me that I am trusted with what needs done, and that they see me as a reliable employee who will get it done. Looking at the responsibility ladder, if it doesn’t get done then the supervisor takes responsibility for it – so of course they are going to ask their most reliable worker to get it done! If you are being asked to do things outside of your work tasks, understand it is likely an opportunity.
So how do you get to the point where you are counted on? Well, it starts with being reliable in your job function. Doing what you are there to do, effectively, time and time again. You must build reliability in small tasks and maintain it in the large ones. I recommend trying to beat deadlines when you are first building your reliability. The tasks you are going to be given in testing your reliability are likely small but make them the most important thing on your schedule, after all, it is your step towards building that reliability.
Overall, your goal is to show that, “I am reliable with the small things, trust me with something big.” And when you get that “something big”, be reliable there also. And most importantly, if you mess up along the way in building your reliability, take responsibility. It will validate your reliability in that you know you messed up and you know you can do better.
Good leaders must be reliable. No one is there to push them or expect things of them, they must be reliable on their own. Know what needs done and do it right, every time.
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