My Word is My Bond
I fell in love with economics and finance in my early twenties. The study of economics came first—with elegant models that spanned from human behavior to the interaction between markets on a global scale. Next, I dove deep into the world of finance and found it to be a logical extension of my grounding in economics, but with more practical tools to explain the inner workings of, and interrelationships between families, governments, and businesses.
Early on in my study of finance, I was introduced to the phrase, “my word is my bond.” This essentially meant that a promise to trade a security or commodity was a promise that would be kept. The history of this phrase is storied and has its roots in regional and global trade dating back centuries. Fun fact, the latin motto on the coat of arms of the London Stock Exchange Group, “Dictum Meum Pactum” dates back to 1801 and translates to “my word is my bond.”
The advent of sophisticated computer-based trading environments effectively bind financial transaction participants, so the need to reinforce the moral and structural requirements for commitments made with the phrase “my word is my bond” has waned. However, I believe strongly that we need to bring this phrase back into our popular vernacular.
My Word is No Longer My Bond
I’m deeply concerned and frustrated how difficult the search for truth has become and how easily we bend facts into fictions to fit convenient narratives and agendas. No wait, scrap the niceties, I’m beyond concerned and frustrated. I’m angry that we’ve become so politically polarized and divided that we see fiction as truth and yesterday’s truth gets distorted into today’s alternative reality. But alas, getting and staying mad seldom helps move a conversation forward. Instead, engaging in constructive dialog that leads to compromise and collaboration must be our status quo. So, here’s a deep breath.
My main concern is that the moral flexibility and dreadful treatment of truth and facts that’s demonstrated daily in political theater has begun to make its way into our businesses and create permanent tears in our social fabric. We’re teaching our children and new generations of leaders that if a truth isn’t convenient, we can alter history by shouting alternative narratives long enough and loud enough that the alternative narrative becomes the new truth. This behavior is so incredibly dangerous because it limits our ability to learn from our past and apply its lessons to today’s challenges so that our past mistakes can be avoided or minimized.
Truth, Trust, and Accountability at the Office
A business is a collection of written and unwritten contracts with and between employees, vendors, governmental agencies, and customers. A high functioning business is one that takes those contracts seriously and establishes clear and concise rules of engagement along its vectors of interaction both internally and externally. To connect this back to previous conversations, a high functioning business builds and installs a management operating system that’s rooted in a foundation of continuous improvement and organizational health. Guardrails, systems, and processes are established and continually refined/reinforced to allow for trust to flourish.
What specifically can you do to inoculate your business from being infected by the negative behaviors that are central to the circus which is our current political environment?
Teach, Coach, Mentor, and Inspire. Yes, this is an unabashed plug for the subtitle of my first book, Balancing Act. Use your influence as a leader to teach the humans in your circles about the importance of keeping one’s word, objectively searching for truth, avoiding the trap of a fixed mindset, and learning from the past. From my direct experience, there’s nothing more exhausting than living within multiple realities and promoting fictions that will, someday, come back to bite you in the a$$.
Walk the Talk. This may sound trite, but live by the phrase “my word is my bond.” Remember, that as a leader, your actions are under a microscope and constantly scrutinized. If what you say and what you do are two different things, the implicit message or lesson is that words don’t matter. Words and actions must be aligned. Encourage others to adopt a learning mindset and live one yourself.
Documentation, Documentation, Documentation. This is a famous Linda Temte quote (yes, my dear spouse). To some, especially those that look for ways to bend a narrative or situation to suit their needs, if it’s not written down, it doesn’t exist. Is it part of your management operating system to take meeting notes and disseminate them promptly for comment and historical reference? Are goals codified and shared from top to bottom? Are job responsibilities and skills inventories cataloged and maintained? Are the company’s purpose, vision, cultural standards, and goals clear and understood? If not, I suggest you begin these practices now. Pick up a copy of my second book, The Balanced Business, for an actionable playbook to put these strategic guardrails in place.
Focus on Flow. One way to implicitly build “my word is my bond” muscles within your business is to focus on the continuous improvement concept of flow. A value stream that exhibits a high degree of flow is one where handoffs are seamless and are repeatable and reliable. If creating flow along a value chain is the priority, then keeping one’s word to partners along the value chain is a necessary condition for flow to thrive. Trust will improve as a byproduct of ensuring flow is maximized and breakdowns along the chain become more obvious to detect. Overt hiding and obfuscation are really difficult to maintain in a high flow environment.
Install Transparent Visual Management Tools. I love the concept and practice of the gemba board and other visual management tools. While the name is a bit foreign, the concept of a gemba board is straightforward. To get a sense of what a gemba board is, close your eyes with me and imagine a physical or digital poster board with team goals, key metrics (KPIs), blockers/challenges, recent wins, and ideas to minimize defects (e.g., managing for daily improvement). Be sure to include health indicators (red, amber, green, or RAG status) for each goal and KPI that’s being tracked. The beauty of the gemba board is that it allows the good, bad, and ugly to be on full display so that management, individual team members, and colleagues from the functional area down the hall can seek to understand and help improve flow.
Everyone wins when “my word is my bond” becomes woven into the fabric of your organizational culture. Accountability and trust simultaneously improve as the nooks and crannies to hide half-truths, speculation, and agendas that run counter to the company North Star become fewer and farther between.
Conclusion
I am in no way perfect. I’ve broken promises in my life, but believe I’m a better person for having the phrase my word is my bond swimming around in my subconscious as a guide and check on my daily interactions and behavior. I think more carefully before I commit and believe that I sleep better and have overall lower stress levels as a result.
I can look back on my experience with my mentors and point to specific examples where they each, in their own way, emphasized the importance of followthrough and the alignment of actions and words.
Let’s make the world a better place and reintroduce my word is my bond within our spheres of influence.
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https://www.lseg.com/node/31394
