I once heard someone say that being on time means being 5 minutes early. There are many great leadership qualities, skills and traits we can learn and develop. But none of them will matter if you can’t be on time.
When you show up late, you are inadvertently communicating to those around you something about yourself.
You can walk into a room with the greatest presentation, all ready to go. But if you show up late, you have already turned everyone off and they aren’t likely to give you their full attention.
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I personally always plan to be early no matter where I am going. When I need to be somewhere at 9:00am, I plan to be there by 8:50am.
Things go wrong, traffic detours, you spill coffee on the way out the door, etc. The list of excuses (I mean reasons!) are endless.
No one is perfect, sometimes you sleep in or you lose track of time.
If you find yourself consistently running behind, it’s no longer a situation beyond your control. It becomes a realization that you are actually not in control.
Next week I am going to talk about ways you can manage your time better to be on time.
Here are 3 concepts being on time communicates to others:
1. You are prepared. You might not feel prepared (hopefully you are). When you show up on time for a meeting you show those meeting with you that you are ready to fully engage with them.
The flip side is when you show up late, with papers flying around, trying to connect to the Wi-Fi to get your notes then reassuring the others that you’re ready to go….they aren’t going to buy it!
Those on your team are looking to you to set the standard.
2. You are trustworthy. When you set a time to meet with someone, in essence you are giving them your word. I don’t like wasting my time waiting for someone to show up and neither does anyone else.
When you are late, you are breaking your word. It undermines your integrity and communicates to the other person that you are untrustworthy.
That’s saying a lot about you as a person for something that seems too simple.
3. You can handle more. A dead-end job is one with no forward movement. Not many people see this as a good thing.
You may be in a dead-end job, but you are not in a dead-end life. Things can change! Are you ready to handle the change?
You have to be able to handle what you have if you expect your superiors to give you a shot at something greater.
If you can’t show up on time it shows others you aren’t disciplined, organized and can’t be trusted.
Life is a lot less stressful when you are on time.
Being on time is a simple concept and doesn’t take a PhD to accomplish, but it does speak volumes about you, how organized you are and how much you can handle.
Next week, we are going to look at some strategies to help you be on time. For now, share a story of when you have had to wait for someone who was late.
