The key to success is follow-up because, simple as it may sound, it has been my experience that the majority of people don’t follow up most of the time. The same is true with most managers. I was lucky enough that one of my first mentors told me, “People do what you inspect, not what you expect.”
He felt so strongly about it that he even had a sign with that statement on it in his office.
I have found this to be true. In fact, I spend over two hours first thing every morning sending reminder emails to reports of mine who didn’t respond by the due date I gave them. I do this via the Task function in Outlook. When I send an email to one of my associates I always blind copy myself and when I get my copy back in my inbox I transfer it to the Tasks function in Outlook. I generally set a follow-up date seven days hence unless I need a response sooner than that.
I learned the hard way that when I didn’t give a due date and I followed up after a week or so I regularly heard, “You didn’t tell me when you needed this.” It has been my experience that I have to follow-up much less when I have given a due date and also, when someone doesn’t respond by the due date, I have taken away their excuse that they didn’t know the task was due. Also, once the people who respond to you learn that you are going to follow up 100% of the time if they don’t respond by the due date, you will find that the majority will start to respond by the due date. However, If one of my reports chronically misses due dates I terminate him or her. I don’t have the time or temperament to be an adult babysitter. I also let it be known why he or she was terminated as it sends a strong message.
Yes, modern management theory states that Theory X managers follow up with their employees but that Theory Y managers realize that this makes their employees look like they aren’t trusted and demoralizes them. I have tried both theories and I have found that with college-educated, white-collar workers, Theory Y works most of the time. However, with high school educated (or even lesser educated) blue-collar workers, Theory X is necessary.
If you aren’t assigning due dates when you assign a task, and if you aren’t following up 100% of the time, try it for a while and see if you and your associates don’t become more effective and productive.
Jim Sobeck is CEO of New South Construction Supply, a building products distributor based in Greenville with 10 locations in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida. He is the author of “The Real Business 101: Lessons From the Trenches.” newsouthsupply.com.
