Tick Tock, Tick Tock
By : Tara Renze
Posted September 15, 2009 12:15 to Prospects to Partners Blog
Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock… us Kansas Citians remember the infamous 2001 “tick tock” email sent out by Neal Patterson, CEO of Cerner. The email caused much controversy, both locally and nationally. The email should have never been sent as it wasn’t a good medium to express anger and push for change. However, the message was loud and clear: Be respectful of company time. Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock….
It is a good message; be timely. Be respectful of company time, your time and most importantly, your prospects and customers time. Always show up on time, meet deadlines and never use excuses if you are late. If you’re late, it’s your fault for lack of planning.
I pride myself on hardly ever being late for anything. I tell people, “If I’m late call the police!” I say this because if I am running more than 5 minutes late, you will receive a call from me. I even give this courtesy to my doctors’ office. Being timely is an essential quality of any successful business professional. Being late sends a number of negative messages:
-I’m unorganized
-Something else was more important
-I’m unreliable
The list is endless, and none of the messages are positive. Some of you might be saying to yourself, “I’m fashionably late”. No such thing. If you commit to a time, be there on time. If you are always late in the morning, get up 30 minutes earlier. If your kids make you late, get them ready 20 minutes earlier. Or better yet, teach them a lesson in timeliness and make them miss something, go to school in pajamas or without their breakfast. If someone invites you over for dinner at 7:00, be there at 7:00. It’s disrespectful to the host who’s trying to serve dinner to arrive "fashionably late".
If you commit to being on time, you will be on time. It is truly disrespectful to not be on time. No one likes to have their time wasted. If you are late to a meeting, prospects will assume you will be late on everything and that your customer service is lacking. Make this a commitment or what I call a “non-negotiable”. If you’re in sales, make it a priority to arrive 20-30 minutes early so you can sit in your car and rehearse how the meeting will go. Trust me; being timely will pay huge dividends.
Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock….be respectful, be timely, and just be on time.
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Couldn’t agree more, I make being on-time a rule for my sales meetings. I always find it interesting how many people I meet with are plelased surprised that I show up on time. I guess a lot of sales people can benefit from your advice Tara.
Love the advise as it applies to LIFE not just work … especially in a lot of our cases, a PARENT. You don’t want your child to look bad because YOU don’t have your act together. And as that applies to a company, it is the Company’s name that you are embarrassing if you don’t have your act together!!! Well put cuz!
Love the advice as it applies to LIFE not just work … especially in a lot of our cases, a PARENT. You don’t want your child to look bad because YOU don’t have your act together. And as that applies to a company, it is the Company’s name that you are embarrassing if you don’t have your act together!!! Well put cuz!
OK…I admire and respect your ‘on-time-liness’…and wish I could say the same. Too often the balance of being productive every minute gets in the way of being early or even on time. In the grand scheme of life – what’s 5 or 10 minutes? Error on the side of being 5 or 10 minutes early rather than late. Now I need to take my own medicine! I will definitely be on time tomorrow for every appointment on my calendar…now that’s accountability!
Deb Hamacher
Full Potential LLC
Tara – great points, there’s a lack of professionalism in the workforce today and this is probably the single biggest example!
Another related issue is not responding to emails or voice mails. Everyone gets too much email, but if there’s something sent specifically to you requesting a response (and it’s a legitimate business interaction) then you need to respond (yes or no, even maybe is acceptable) but not responding at all is unprofessional.
Shawn