I want to start today by urging you to do something. It’s often seen as trivial, yet it’s a critical component in the success of your business.
It’s simply this: Work hard to avoid being late. Make punctuality a high priority. Seriously, it’s extremely important.
Here’s why this matters far more than many people think.
It’s not OK to waste other people’s time
In business, if we tell someone we will meet them at a certain time and we don’t, we send them a number of extremely toxic signals.
They are likely to believe one or more of the following:
- Whatever we were doing or whoever we were speaking to prior to them, is more important to us than they are.
- We can’t manage our time.
- We can’t cope with our work flow.
- We don’t understand the rudimentary basics of how transport works – namely that it usually runs late.
- We lack the vision to plan ahead, to anticipate things like transport or traffic delays and overcome their impact.
The reality is that we are all occasionally late for a meeting or phone call. We’re only human. Things happen, which are unavoidable, rather than the result of poor planning or neglect.
Avoid a reputation for being unreliable
However, we need to be really careful about consistently being late. Equally, when meeting someone for the first time, it’s really important to plan ahead so we will be able to keep our first commitment to them.
No one in business needs a reputation for being unreliable. It’s one of those habits that is disliked so strongly, that it speaks louder than all the good work that went before it.
PS: If managing your time is a challenge for you or you want to work more productively, you will find the following post useful. It shows how to get more done in less time and enjoy the process.
IMPORTANT: If you want to make more sales, boost your profits and grow an amazing business, this will help you!