Wednesday, August 26, 2009

The Importance of Following Up – One of Business Life’s Important Lessons

When I was younger I really enjoyed playing hockey (the field hockey variety, that is). I wasn’t particularly good at it, but it was something I got a great deal of pleasure from, and at school I played regularly for one of the school sides.

A number of us left school for university at the same time, and, since we didn’t want to give up our games of hockey, it was agreed that we’d carry on playing as a group during university vacations. I volunteered to organise the fixtures and selections - and over the next couple of years it became one of the learning experiences of my life!

I found that arranging fixtures with local clubs wasn’t at all difficult, and we generally had a game every week of each vacation during the season. The real problem lay in organising the players. After our very first game, all the players confirmed that they would be available for the following weekend’s game. However when the day came, to my horror only about half of them turned up!

I quickly learnt that this would be a regular occurrence if I didn’t follow up with them during the week before. Naturally I did this, since if the team didn’t turn up it could at the least be very embarrassing!

Before I knew it I was calling the players, not just once, but two or even three times in the week to make sure they were there on game day. Then, and only then, could I be reasonably confident that we would field a full team!

It’s a lesson which I have continued to benefit from in my business life. Of course, the promise of a paycheck makes it more likely (though not certain) that employees will turn up for work than was the case with my hocket team. But what they do when they get there is another matter entirely.

Over the years I’ve continued to learn that constant follow up is absolutely essential to make sure that jobs get done, get done well, and get done on time. This hasn’t always made me popular with my people, but it does make all the difference to our company’s performance. And if I don’t follow up regularly for some reason, the standard invariably slips.

Looking back, I’m grateful to the hockey team which taught me – albeit the hard way – one of business’s most important lessons at an early stage of my development: regular and consistent follow-up is absolutely critical to business success.

Arnold Cummins

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