Being Late and other Crimes

I HATE being late. 

Yesterday morning I was late. I am coaching my son’s basketball team and we have an 8am morning practice on a Wednesday, which even with multiple diary entries wasn’t on my radar (nor my sons either). We were a little late in getting to practice. I was not happy with myself at all! 

I have been thinking a little bit about the three criteria that makes a person or a company great to work with and this kind brought it home.

Punctuality: A lack of punctuality can mean many things, but when I think of how I feel when someone is late all the time, I think this person may not value my time. I think that it probably means that they are disorganised as well. I assume that I am not the only one who thinks this and it is why I try so hard not to be late! 
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Producing good work: Producing good work is of supreme importance of course. A constant striving to be better, the best, or the quest to maintain a high standard tells us a lot about a person and a company. Why would you not want to work with or for a person or company that is not trying to do this? 
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Pleasant to deal with: I don’t think that this is just a matter of nice smiles and good service, although this helps. People and businesses that are pleasant to deal with are responsive and have clear guides around availability. For a business it is also about having user-friendly systems for stakeholders to work within. 

But consider these scenarios below – and we all know someone in each of these categories, many famous people fit these categories: 

Think of highly unpleasant people that produce amazing work and always deliver on time. We will put up with their unpleasant behaviour more often than not. 

Or the chronically late person that produces exceptional work, joyfully presented with a smile a few days late. We will tolerate the lack of punctuality. 

And lastly, the error-filled work that is meticulously on-time, produced by someone who is just so friendly and makes working with them a joy. 

Ideally, all three elements are present and certainly this is what I am trying to achieve at a personal and business level. But even if only TWO of these are present, we will usually continue to do business with this person or organisation. 

I can think of people that were never on time, produced sloppy work, and did so in a rude and unpleasant manner… I don’t work with these people anymore. 

I think my weakness sits in the punctuality zone, usually only by a minute or two, but that’s the one for me to work on. Probably allowing myself a bit more time in between activities and meetings would help. 

Back to yesterday morning. We had a great practice. The kids have won the past two games. Their skills are increasing dramatically. As a team, they have started working together and some of the initial ‘outsiders’ are being included and proving to the rest of the team they are valuable. The coach is positive and upbeat, and even supplies chocolate bars at the end of the game. 

I guess I will be forgiven for being a few minutes late then.

What is your weakness?  Will you work on it?