What is your DQ - Dependability Quotient?

If we judge anyone by their "intentions", most people would think themselves to be dependable. However, we all are judged by the actual behaviour and that might actually be projecting a different story. 

Ask any manager, she'd put "dependability" very high on the their list of things they judge people on. Being seen as "dependable" is a great trait to possess that'd help retain/increase the trust, be seen as a go-to person and increase influence. Carefully notice the top performers around you, you can see for yourselves that they are dependable - they seem to be around for their team, for their managers, for their customers. All the time. Most importantly they'd never, I repeat NEVER break a promise they've made. 

This trait becomes super important around major releases, major trade events like NI-Week, IMS etc, or when there are escalations that need some ultra quick responses. From a manager's perspective, here's what one can do increase one's DQ:

• Honour the promise. If you've told you'd work on some thing over the weekend or come to office on a weekend, for heavens sake walk the talk and seize the moment. You miss only one day as promised, all the great work you might have done in the past will not count much (for that one day may be too critical for your manager, her manager's manager and so on).

• Make solid contributions to trust account - deposits build trust, withdrawals lessen trust. When you walk the talk, you make a deposit, and when you break a promise you withdraw. Note even breaking a seemingly small promise (from your view) could result in a huge withdrawal from your manager's perspective.

• During crunch moments, do not call in sick or call in and report a change in plan - unless it is really very very important. When you call in, managers usually will approve given our culture, but that doesn't mean there was no withdrawal. There indeed would be, and that'd be a BIG withdrawal and you'd never come to know. Higher the stress levels, higher would be the amount of withdrawal. (OK OK, I hear you arguing that if the manager had NOT approved, I'd have still come. That is not the point - see the pic at the end of this post)

• Avoid planning long vacations around major releases. If you still *have to* (due to constraints coming from other family members or friends, visiting places that are open only during specific months, planning around school vacations etc.,) make sure it is discussed with your manager sufficiently well in advance and approved. And as you approach the vacation, over communicate that you are not going to be around to ALL the stakeholders and do everything you can to easy their anxiety. Finally, pl. consider leaving your contact details during vacation. Highly unlikely someone would try bothering you, but such a gesture would be a deposit. And after coming back, please thank your co-workers for holding fort.

I feel sad that I see many people miss this simple point, rationalize their actions and resent when they realise that there is a gap between where they are vs where their manager think they are. Gaps can come from many things, but having a high DQ is easiest to achieve, and is in our own control and also is the one that has a (very) high RoI. 

Edit: Vijaya Raghava pointed out the prime reasons why 4 raters are who they are is largely because of their Dependability Quotient. Further, he also rightly reasons that DQ seems to be directly linked is sense of ownership(and pride). Pl. consider.