How to Deal with People Who Don’t Keep Their Word

A project manager’s guide on how to hold people to account.

Luke Pivac
Agile | Adapt
Published in
5 min readFeb 2, 2024

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We all have experienced the frustration of dealing with people who don’t keep their word. They promise to do something, but they don’t follow through. They make commitments, but they break them. They say one thing, but they do another.

Image by Luke Pivac, created on Image Creator from Design, 2024

When your team, don’t keep their word on something they agreed to do, then this can be very annoying and disappointing, especially if we rely on them for something important. It can also damage the trust and respect we have for them and affect our relationship negatively.

So, how can we handle this situation effectively? How can we communicate with them in a way that helps them improve their behavior, without being rude or aggressive?

How to Deal with People Who Don’t Keep Their Word

Here are some tips that can help you deal with people who don’t keep their word…

Don’t take it personally!

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Luke Pivac
Agile | Adapt

An experienced delivery leader - helping teams succeed by using an adaptive-mindset. Thought-leader and published author. PSM-1, MSP5, ICP-ATF, ICP-APM, ICP-DAS