Category: Articles

the quality or state of being punctual.

strict observance in keeping engagements; promptness.

Are you a punctual person? Do you make appointments and arrive on time or a few minutes early? To you take a project and complete it within the arranged time frame? Or, do you find yourself putting it aside, for something else, and before you know it, time has slipped away and now you much rush through?

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”  ~ Douglas Adams

Many people think I’m a bit on the obsessive side. I love to be on time. I’m never ‘fashionably late’. If I say I’ll be somewhere at a certain time, and I find I can’t, I will call and let them know. I have never appreciated sitting in a doctor’s office waiting for the appointment I scheduled, and finding out that earlier, the doctor had to rush out on an emergency. I have relaxed some in the last year or so. I’m no longer 30 – 45 minutes early for everything, now, I try to be 10 to 15 minutes early instead. So, when you tell me, you’re going to call at a specific time, then don’t…. that makes me crazy. Or, if you call at the last 3 minutes in that time frame and say you can’t make it, and you’ll call later, and give me another time frame – – and THEN don’t call me, I’m no longer crazy… I’m insane. I’m incensed!! Kathy

“I must do something” always solves more problems than “Something must be done.”  ~Author Unknown

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“Change is inevitable―except from a vending machine.” – Robert C. Gallagher The past decade has been an incredible time of change, not all of it positive. And I’m confident most of us would have chosen different changes or circumstances instead of two recessions, two wars, multiple natural disasters, and terrorist attacks on American soil. None of us has the ultimate power to change global events. We can, however, make changes in our businesses to make this our best year ever. So, here are a few changes I suggest you make right away:

• Start quoting higher rates or fees, even if it’s just a little bit more.  Some people may just say yes.  And you can always negotiate down from there, knowing you did not leave any money on the table.
• Hold yourself, your colleagues, and your team to a higher standard.  For example, the bigger money earners in our business spend at least half their day attempting to connect to or in conversations with their clients and candidates.  Yet, more than 50 percent of people in our business spend less than two hours daily in these activities. Step it up!  Make more calls.  Visit more clients.  Spend more time with your best candidates.
• Stop booking bad business.  And don’t waste time with unqualified and unwilling candidates.  This starts with taking better, more thoroughly vetted orders and digging deeper in candidate interviews.

Decide today which of these and other changes you will make this year.  Then, take a few minutes each week to monitor the progress.