Be Reliable

The Internet is really a wonderful thing.

I have friends I made at different times in my life, in different countries, and under all sorts of circumstances. I recently read Walter Isaacson’s biography of Einstein, and he describes how Einstein kept in touch with many different people throughout his life through letters that would sometimes take weeks to arrive.

Today, I can jump into a video conference with friends on the other side of the world and talk almost as if we were sitting in the same room.

But this post is not really about the Internet.

I was recently on one of those catch-up calls with a couple of friends, and we started talking about roofing, plumbing, and contractors in general. We talked about how difficult it is to find reliable contractors who will do something very simple: show up and do what they said they would do.

One of my friends mentioned that he would gladly pay one specific contractor several times more than the other bids he received simply because the guy consistently showed up on time and completed the work within the promised timeframe.

If you have ever done renovations or needed a handyman, you would probably join that conversation and share your own stories of disappointment. I get it. I have been there too.

But now, let’s be real.

Are we, in the IT industry, much better than that?

I would argue that we are not.

Not long ago, I had a great manager who did something different on my first day of work. Instead of just talking about the team, the processes, and the company, he had a slide deck about himself: who he was, how he got where he was, his family, and much more.

Then he talked about what he expected from me.

One of the first items on his list was an acronym. If I remember correctly, it was:

“DWYSYWD” — Do What You Said You Would Do.

I saw that and kind of scratched my head.

That is a pretty low bar.

But let’s be pragmatic here. How often do colleagues let you down? Team members who not only fail to deliver what they promised, but also do not communicate that things are not going to happen as expected.

As a manager, it was a breath of fresh air when someone consistently delivered on their commitments. Not because everything always went perfectly, but because I knew where I stood.

I did not have to chase updates, guess whether something was going to happen, or discover at the last minute that a commitment had quietly disappeared.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not saying people are unreliable most of the time. Most people genuinely want to do a good job.

The problem is that many people are inconsistent.

They are excellent in some situations, but then something changes. They take on too much, underestimate complexity, get stuck, or simply fail to communicate when things start going off track.

As a manager, part of my job was to understand why that happened. Was the person overloaded? Was the task outside their current skill set? Did they need more support or clearer priorities?

Those are solvable problems.

But there is another side to this. Every time someone commits to something and does not follow through — especially without communicating — they spend a little bit of the trust they have built with the people around them.

That trust can be rebuilt, but it is not unlimited.

The important distinction is that failing to achieve the desired outcome is not the same thing as failing to do what you said you would do. Someone who takes ownership, communicates clearly, and asks for help when needed is still building trust, even when the outcome is not perfect.

Throughout my career, I have told managers that I would do my best. And I did.

Sometimes my best was not enough, and the outcome was still not what we wanted. But the commitment was real, and the communication was there.

I can work with someone who takes ownership, communicates clearly, and occasionally falls short. I can help that person grow.

What is much harder is relying on someone who disappears when things get difficult and leaves everyone else to deal with the consequences.

At the end of the day, reliability is not about being perfect.

It is about being someone whose words can be trusted.

Shane Parrish captured this idea well:

“Reliability is magnetic because humans are hardwired to avoid risk, so once you prove yourself trustworthy and reliable, you become the default choice for opportunities without ever asking for them.”

As a manager, I agree completely.

Companies will always have interesting projects and opportunities appearing from time to time. They are often more challenging, more visible, and can genuinely change the direction of someone’s career.

When upper management asks me, “Who is your best engineer I can lend for this project?”, who do you think I will choose?

The person who completed the most LeetCode problems?

Or the person who consistently did what they said they would do? The person who communicated clearly, followed through, and proved they could be trusted?

The answer is obvious.

So here is the simple call to action:

Be reliable.