Never Too Late

Let’s talk about New Year resolutions because we seem to be bombarded at this time of year from all sides – fitness goals, life changing goals, career goals and work-life balance goals. So jumping on the bandwagon, how about we all resolve that in 2017 we are not going to be late……?
And just when did it get to be “OK” for people to be late for everything? In our current culture it seems that a meeting set to start at 9 am for some people means in the general vicinity of any time which starts with the number ‘9’.
People drift in at 9.10 or 9.20, or even later. And they smile warmly at the waiting group, as they fiddle with their healthy muesli breakfast which apparently they didn’t have time to consume before leaving for work this morning. In most cases these offenders appear to be totally unconcerned that others have been there since five to nine, prepared and ready to start.
But, if we do the math, 10 people kept waiting in a meeting for 20 minutes, while some selfish, inconsiderate individual who idles his or her way to the meeting via the coffee shop, is actually 20 minutes times 10, which is 200 minutes wasted – that is over 3 hours wasted while these individuals keep us waiting because they decided other things were more important. Perhaps we should provide them with an invoice for our time to aid their ‘focus’……
We often experience an arrangement to meet someone for a business meeting at a coffee shop at say, 3 pm which oftentimes means at 3.10 we get a text saying ‘I am five minutes away’ which inevitably means 10 minutes, and so we wait for 15 or 20 minutes, kicking our heels in frustration. What makes it even more infuriating is where these ‘latecomers’ are people who have requested the meeting in the first place, are asking for your help, or are selling something.
And it is not that we lead ‘busy lives’. That’s a given, we all do, and it’s a cop out to use that as an excuse. It’s simply that some people no longer even pretend that they think your time is as important as theirs. And technology makes it worse. It seems texting or emailing that you are late somehow means you are no longer late. But the fact is that this behaviour is still rude and inconsiderate and frankly is hugely damaging to your personal and corporate brand.
So, are we ever late? Sure, infrequently where traffic incidents have shut down roads for long periods but we never plan to be late. It would kill our business in an instant. We never ‘let time slide’ because our stuff is more important than yours.
Let’s be honest with ourselves, serial lateness is a character flaw which we should consider closely when considering who to promote, who to hire and who can be trusted to represent our brand appropriately – it really is that important.
We don’t know what other goals you have set for yourself in 2017 but we hope that you are successful with all of them. If you can squeeze in another one and determine not to be late, then that would be good too…… Happy New Year!