When people owe me things (examples: status of a project, document that they promised to send) but I don’t hear back from them on the due date, I get a bit confused.
Here is my dilemma.
I don’t know if
* They have completed the task but forgot to send me a note OR
* They had a problem completing the task OR
* They forgot about the task OR
* They are waiting for more information from me OR
* They didn’t know that THEY were supposed to do the task OR
* There is something else that I don’t know.
* They had a problem completing the task OR
* They forgot about the task OR
* They are waiting for more information from me OR
* They didn’t know that THEY were supposed to do the task OR
* There is something else that I don’t know.
I checked with a few other CEOs to see if they face this problem. Their answer – “Many times”!
Having been in leadership positions for more than a decade, I know that when I don’t get the “progress” report on time, the reason is mostly because there was no “progress” to report. I guess I would like to know even when there is no “progress”. May be a “No Progress” report?
Action Item:
How about taking an inventory of all your projects today. If people are expecting a progress report but you have no progress report, how about sending them a “No Progress” report and remove their stress a bit. They can deal with the situation better if they at least know that there was “no progress”.