It’s a crazy-busy world and getting worse. There are resources to help us, e.g., articles, books, coaches. Our people need to be as high a priority to us as our external clients if we are to have a healthy company with energetic, enthusiastic and engaged team members–and consistently earn the results we desire. We each need our own customized plan to manage our time and attention. Each of us has different circumstances and levels of support. Our timely response is important–and appropriate! If we receive a request and we’re swamped, we can respond ASAP, briefly explain, and ask if we can get back this afternoon, tomorrow or whenever is our first chance. This is leadership, and anything less is not. We must manage our schedule and time so we are available to our people. This is not acceptable! If someone is in a leadership position, they must make time to be responsive in a timely manner! Busyness is not an excuse. I’m jammed, but I’ll work on being better.” When I discuss responsiveness and timeliness with senior managers, they invariably say, “I know, I’m just so busy. They seldom answer her requests on a timely basis and without her follow-ups. Just yesterday, a very talented and dedicated up and coming vice president, told me that she feels the senior managers of her company must not like her. If we do not get right back to our people when they email and call, they feel we are disrespecting them. Our promptness enables them to better work, including serving our clients.Įveryone wants to do a good job and be successful! Let’s help them be successful. We need to prioritize responding to our team members and other colleagues. We must realize that we are responsible for helping our people. Not only am I not a priority to him, I seem to be a bother.” “He does not seem to value me and my work. Does he think what I do is not important?” “I do not feel appreciated or valued as my manager often returns my calls and emails days or weeks later. “We have to follow up, repeatedly, often two, three times.” They do not respond promptly to our needs and requests.” “Those in our home office do not seem to know what it is like serving our clients and our urgency in doing so. “My boss is not punctual in returning my emails and voice messages.” In my Common Sense Leadership consulting and coaching practice, I speak with hundreds of business people every year. As a result, some managers are slow to respond to requests from team members and other colleagues, which is frustrating and not fair to those people. Almost everyone in business is very busy. “I wish all of our other senior executives would read your article, take it to heart, and improve their responsiveness and helpfulness.”
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