If you start something - make sure you finish it. Keep your audience updated if your stated objective changes. Here is a recent example -
"In a meeting on Monday John agreed to compile a list of prospects and email it out to all team members by Friday. Friday came and went but the list was still not available."Follow-through in this situation is a courtsey email by Friday informing the team members about a new delivery date and adherance to that new committment.
If you are responsible for something can you be trusted to complete that assignment? Complete means bring to a meaniful conclusion by keeping the respective parties informed of progress. If someone has to ask you what is going on - maybe you need to do a better job of following through. A big part of follow-through is timely communication. Avoid the situation where people have to guess what is going on or need to reach out to you for information.
1 comment:
This "follow through" point is so basic, so simple, so powerful, and yet so necessary to make because so many people blow it. This is a pet peeve of mine - I think lack of this kind of follow through is inexcusable, and wonder why it is so commonplace. A colleague I was working with in the early days of the TQM movement wanted to write a basic book called "Do what you say you will do." I hope this post is read by millions, and changes some behaviors out there!
Post a Comment