How Is Your Follow Through?

For instance, when hitting a baseball, if you don’t follow through correctly, you’ll never get one out of the infield. You play golf?  No follow through will give you a maximum range of fifty yards.  The same is true for your business. If you don’t follow through with your employees, you won’t keep your employees, customers and probably your business.

When you give an employee an important assignment, it is OK to ask a question the next day about how they are doing. What problems have they had in getting this done? And then you solve the problems early in the task rather than when the walls come tumbling down.

In an employee review session, you and the employee agree on certain goals for the upcoming month or year. It is OK, and in fact very good business, to follow up in a week or two to make sure the message has been properly conveyed. If the employee’s job is in jeopardy, it is imperative to follow through quickly to avoid having to terminate their career with you.

A lead comes into the office which fits your company to a T. You give this to your sales manager and tell her to jump right on it. By noon the next day you should be checking in to hear her results and if they are not what you expect, then you can discuss this prior to the job going to a competitor.

All things equal, you, as the owner or senior manager, should be following through on every significant event that can positively or negatively affect your company. Even your best trained person will appreciate a pat on the back if they have done exactly what you requested.