I decided early in my career that my name was part of every product I worked on

I was in my twenties, working for a digital agency, when someone asked me to sugarcoat the truth for a client.

I pushed back. If you know me, no surprise here.

But I was young and financially dependent on my job.

Still, I couldn’t help myself. I realized very strongly that:

My name was going to be part of every piece of work I delivered. I couldn’t compromise it at the very beginning.

The company would change.

The project would eventually end.

The client might work with someone else.

I might meet them again two years from now.

And people remember people.

That was frightening.

I couldn’t tell them, “My boss back then made me say it. Trust me now.”

Trust is trust.

I wasn’t going to compromise my name just to make a difficult conversation more comfortable.

That didn’t mean I was going to walk into the client meeting and say:

“We’re completely lost. Good luck.”

Or:

“Our designer is sick. Sorry, we don’t have much to share.”

That isn’t honesty.

That’s just abandoning your responsibility.

Instead, I would say something more like:

“We’ve explored this direction and it isn’t giving us what we expected. Here’s what we’ve learned so far. To move forward, we would need more data from you. What would help you most right now? How do you feel about it?”

Let’s use their time for something productive instead of trying to hide the fact that we’re stuck.

Maybe we could agree on the smallest thing we could move forward with first.

Maybe we needed to involve someone from their side.

There were always options.

And it always led to a healthier discussion instead of a battle in my head about:

What if they find out? What will I say then? Who am I going to blame? The designer? The team? My boss?

The important part is not to pretend.

This followed me into the corporate world.

Over the years, I’ve worked with some very large customers and some very large contracts.

And yes, sometimes things went wrong in ways that were stupid, embarrassing, expensive, or all three.

Imagine a bug causing additional work on the customer side, and you can’t promise it will be fixed next month.

Or the feature is an MVP. It doesn’t cover the whole complexity, and the customer is asking:

“Why did you even release this?”

What do you say and still keep the credibility of your team, your company, and yourself?

Be honest and approachable.

I found that customers could handle bad news surprisingly well when they could see that you cared, you understood the problem, and you were taking responsibility for moving it forward.

So I would tell them what had happened.

Why we couldn’t fix it immediately.

What we had already tried.

What we were going to do next.

What we could realistically commit to.

And when appropriate, I’d set up regular check-ins so they weren’t left wondering what was happening.

That usually led to something interesting:

Because I wasn’t making promises just to make the conversation easier, I could work with real deadlines.

And we could actually deliver.

Once you deliver, you get some of your credibility back. The customer starts to trust you more and, often, becomes less pushy.

The customer didn’t need me to pretend everything was perfect.

They needed to know that I was their partner.

That I cared.

That I was accountable.

That I wasn’t going to disappear when things got difficult.

Twenty years later…

Ask people who have worked with me and they might tell you I was demanding.

Not always easy-going.

A bit of a rebel.

I can live with that.

But I don’t think anyone who worked closely with me could honestly say I didn’t do a good job.

That I didn’t care about the customer, the team, or the product.

That I gave up when something became difficult.

Or that I avoided a tough conversation simply because it would have been more comfortable for me.

And I think that comes back to the decision I made very early in my career:

My own personal brand, my name, can’t be compromised.

Be loyal to your employer.

Be loyal to your team.

Be loyal and respectful to the stakeholders around you.

Absolutely.

But loyalty doesn’t mean hiding reality from the customer.

And being a good colleague doesn’t mean avoiding disagreement.

Being a good team member doesn’t mean never pushing back.

Protect the work. Protect the customer. Protect the relationship.

And don’t be afraid of the difficult conversation when something doesn’t sit right with you.

Pay attention to that feeling in your gut.

Sometimes it is telling you something important.

The company can change.

The strategy can change.

Your boss can change.

The project can end.

But your name stays with you.

I’d rather have a reputation for being difficult than one for being dishonest.