Does Your Staff Take Immediate Action?

It used to be that if you asked someone to do something, it got done immediately. In the “old days” your employees listened and acted exactly as you said. That’s how they kept their job. But today, because of the swarm of communication that happens in a day - directives, projects, initiatives, emails, face-to-face conversations and instant messages – it isn’t easy for an employee to intake all the details, especially verbally, and then prioritize them correctly and get them done right with one request. Even if you think you are crystal clear.

Some of it is their fault and some is yours as the boss. Today, if you assume that one conversation will bring the exact action you want, it will often lead to damage control, crisis or just high levels of frustration when it doesn’t happen just as you wanted.

A Harvard Business Review article, “Effective Managers Say The Same Thing Twice (or More)” makes an interesting assertion. According to research, the key in getting things done is not just in clarity of message (as I certainly assumed). Getting things done, according to the article and research, requires making your presence felt by staying top of mind. How? Redundancy...

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