To ‘under-promise and over-deliver’ is a sham

There are dozens—perhaps even hundreds—of tired, clichéd, and hackneyed “inspirational” business, leadership, and management quotes that should be retired and probably eliminated from our collective consciousness.

I recently offered a list of such quotes on my blog. In my haste to publish that piece, I failed to included a quote (really more of a business/performance maxim) that I also can’t stand, which is the “under-promise and over-deliver” chestnut that passes for good advice when dealing with commitments of any kind—be they to customers, your boss, or your friends.

It’s appalling that this idea—that purposefully misleading your customer or boss about what you can accomplish in order to fabricate unearned glory by surpassing your own inaccurate estimates of cost/effort/time to deliver—passes for good advice.