The art of underpromising & overdelivering

by Stephanie Eckelkamp

This may sound obvious, but: People are more likely to respect you (and promote you) if you do what you say you’re going to do. Coming up way short on a sales goal, not hitting all of a project’s objectives, or falling behind on hard deadlines only sews a lack of confidence in your abilities. This is why being overambitious and overpromising on what you can realistically accomplish—even though it might make you look good in the moment—can really backfire. 

Plus, if you promise your boss or client the moon and then royally miss the mark, you’re not only damaging that relationship, you’re seriously bruising your own work ego, too. Feeling like you’ve failed can have negative implications for self-confidence and self-worth, not to mention your anxiety levels—and all of this could make it even harder to accomplish your goals in the future.

So, what’s a good way to set yourself up for success? The advice “underpromise, overdeliver” gets tossed around a lot, and to a point, it may help you account for unforeseen delays or other setbacks that mess with a project’s outcome—but it requires nuance in its implementation. 

How to “underpromise and overdeliver” the right way. 

Underpromising and overdelivering is all about managing people’s expectations, including your own. When you say you’ll complete a task by X date or come in at X budget, and then you intentionally finish earlier or under budget (or you go above and beyond in some other way), that’s a pleasant surprise for your boss or client. And it will most likely boost their confidence in your work ethic and skills, too. The tricky part, however, is that you don’t want to underpromise or overdeliver too much. It’s all about balance. 

Here are some tips on how to do it effectively: 

Take your “ideal” goal or timeline and build in a realistic buffer. 

We’re notoriously bad at estimating how long it takes to do things, and often, we make goals in line with what we believe we should be able to do in ideal circumstances, not what we can actually accomplish. So, an important thing to do when you’re working on a project (and have some say in scope of work or deadlines) is to build in a buffer period. 

First, estimate your “perfect world” timeline/deadline—e.g. the one you can meet provided you experience zero hiccups, setbacks, or surprises that cause slow downs. This is the absolute ideal goal, which you can internally strive for, but you don’t necessarily want to communicate that goal with others. If you do, you’re overpromising, since things rarely go exactly to plan. 

From here, think of the setbacks you’re most likely to experience over the course of the project—e.g. if you’re likely to get saddled with another project simultaneously, if approval from other parties is necessary at every stage, backlogs in other departments, tech issues, etc. Building in a realistic (but not excessive) buffer to compensate for these slow downs allows you to come up with a realistic goal or timeline that you can then share with your boss or clients. 

But! Don’t promise too little or deliver too much. 

Ideally, this built-in buffer will allow you to complete projects slightly ahead of schedule, or at least by the agreed upon due date—no later. 

The important thing to remember: You don’t want to promise too little up front, or you risk appearing less capable and competent than your peers or competition. You don’t necessarily want to finish way ahead of schedule or go far beyond the scope of a project all the time either, or you run the risk of your boss or clients always expecting you to go above and beyond (and possibly even being disappointed when you finish on schedule instead of ahead). 

Additionally, research shows that when people consistently overdeliver, it’s not always appreciated. In a 2014 study, behavioral scientist researchers designed experiments to see how people reacted when they got more, less, or exactly what they expected. They found that keeping a promise was valued very highly and effectively demonstrated that someone was a reliable and trustworthy person, but that exceeding a promise resulted in a negligible amount of increased appreciation. 

So, depending on the situation, greatly exceeding agreed-upon goals may not be worth the additional effort you put in. And, as one of the study’s researchers, Nicholas Epley, put it: You may want to "invest efforts into keeping promises, not in exceeding them." 

If you get pushback, be transparent about timing. 

Just because you’re underpromising and being more conservative with your timeline for a project doesn’t mean you have to look less capable than your peers or the competition. If you share your “buffered” goal with your boss or a client and get a less than enthusiastic response, transparency is the best policy. Consider saying something like this: “With zero delays and hiccups, I (or my team) could have this completed by X date. But based on my experience, X is a much more realistic deadline.”

That way you’re not simply asking for more time, rather, you seem like you’ve put real thought into what it takes to accomplish the task at hand—and they feel looped into your decision making process. If necessary, you can also respectfully share how long certain aspects of a project are likely to take, especially if it’s something your boss has never actually done before. For example, they may have the false impression that performing a certain type of research will only take you 4-5 hours when in reality it takes closer to 10.  

Coming into conversations armed with real data—and a good dose of confidence and enthusiasm for the project—will help you manage their expectations so your “underpromise” has its intended effect, making you seem even more (rather than less) capable. 

Bottom line.

Meeting goals and deadlines is crucial for building trust and the confidence of your employer or your clients, depending on your particular role or industry. But our internal goals are often so lofty and don’t account for realistic setbacks that we unintentionally sabotage our efforts—which looks really bad if it happens consistently. Underpromising intelligently, on the other hand, can set you up for success, allowing you to meet your goals every time and occasionally even exceed them. 

Just remember: Shit will inevitably happen over the course of your career. So if you encounter a truly unforseen setback and you know you’re going to miss a deadline, communicate that information as soon as you can (i.e. not right before the deadline). Making a mistake, owning it, and doing your best to fix it quickly is the next best thing to never making it at all.