Pay attention. Follow directions. Do these phrases sound familiar? They should, from day one these two phrases are repeated to us over and over again. Parents, teachers, coaches, you are bombarded by these phrases in all facets of your life. With all of this reinforcement, you would assume the last thing we would do is forget them. Explain this to me then: How is it that when we get to the corporate world we seem to scrap these lessons all together? I want you to take a minute and count the number of times that youve sent out an email providing specific directions for a task, only to have three-fourths of the people disregard at least part of your directions. Does this number surprise you? When you stop and think about it, this happens a lot. This problem is not only confined to email (although it is a big culprit since it is such a widely used medium today), it happens in many areas in the workplace. Another example occurs at meetings. How many times have you called a meeting, only to have somebody call the wrong teleconference number because it changed from the one you used last time? How many times have half the people coming to the meeting not brought the required materials (or even a notebook for that matter)? The list goes on and on. With this being said, it is nigh near impossible to make someone be responsible. You can poke, you can prod, but in the end they have to be responsible for their own actions. What you can do is strive not to fall into this trap yourself. If you get an email, read it thoroughly and dont just skim it. If someone gives you a task to do, nail down what and how you need to accomplish it. When it comes down to it, you need to embrace the belief that there is no middle ground, there is no C. You either complete a task to the best of your ability, or you dont. If you follow half of the directions, you mind as well have not followed any of them. Some topics have many shades of grey, however when it comes to paying attention and following directions, there is only black and white. |
