Merriam-Webster defines “responsiveness” as quick to respond or react appropriately or sympathetically.  Responsiveness in the business world… it’s more than that. Responsiveness means timely decisions that lead to timely actions that lead to moving the business forward.  The quicker the response times, the more quickly progress can occur.  Beating a competitor to market, exceeding customer expectations on that new implementation, finding a vaccine for a pandemic. But all of those successes can be tracked back to specific activities, specific actions, specific decisions that started with one specific individual.

What can you do to be more responsive, to help your team be more responsive, to help your organization be more responsive and successful?

Set Expectations / Meet Expectations

I’ve been in IT for 30+ years, working in various roles and working with a variety of people from around the country. I’ve learned that factors such as the business culture you’ve grown up in or your geographic region impacts people’s definition of what constitutes a timely response.  A three-day turnaround might be adequate and accepted for some. If you’re the new guy or gal in an organization and are accustomed to “same-day-delivery,” you’ll most certainly be frustrated.  Have those conversations with people to communicate expectations.

If you know the project manager wants the weekly burndown chart in their inbox by noon on Thursday, or your boss wants the monthly status report submitted by 4:00 PM on the last day of the month, make it happen.  In most cases, team members are not making up arbitrary dates and times for work submission.  The timely completion of your task allows for their timely completion of their task.  The burndown chart can be distributed to the whole team for sprint planning. The status report data can feed the executive level reports for the Board meeting on Monday.  Be sure to meet others’ expectations; if you can’t, communicate early and work with them to agree to expectations that you can meet.

Respect Other’s Time and Work

When you fail to deliver or drop the ball on something you were to have completed for someone, you could be telling that person, “you or your work is not important enough for me to remember,” or “my work and my time is more valuable than your work and your time.”  While that may be true if we’re comparing the CEO to the register clerk, it’s not an excuse for throwing courtesy out the window… but that’s a topic for another blog.  In most workgroups and teams across an organization, everyone’s work and time are equally valuable and crucial for its overall success.  Respond to others the way you want them to respond to you.

Be Accountable

Responsiveness is accountability. Follow-ups waste time – everyone’s time.  Even when you have a minor delay, the downstream impacts can be huge since work must go on. Multiple times, across multiple individuals, over weeks, months, years… it all adds up. But, we’re all only human. Mistakes and life happens. The trick is to speak up as quickly as possible and let others know if you have to submit something late. Don’t overcommit your time or agree to deadlines you know you cannot meet. Once you have agreed to a timeline or due date, meet that schedule. If you do encounter difficulties, ask for more time or to seek help in prioritizing tasks if your workload does get out of hand. You are responsible for yourself, and sometimes that includes speaking up for yourself!

When in Doubt, Over-Communicate

We’ve all seen those sitcom skits where the boss wraps up a meeting, completes all the teamwork assignments, and employee Fred had dozed off or was distracted on another call.  Rather than just fessing up, apologizing for missing his assignment, and asking his boss to repeat that, he spends the rest of the show sweating over what he should be doing, making up wild guesses at the assignment, and making a bigger mess of the situation.  As a junior IT consultant, I struggled at times with a fear I might be bothering my coworkers with too many questions.  I’ve already asked Kim twice this week for her project status and heard nothing. Should I ask her again?  Bill told me in the meeting this morning he needed the budget numbers by tomorrow. Did he say first thing tomorrow, or did he mean by the end-of-day after I’ve received the mid-week client update?   That passive mindset on many occasions led to communication breakdowns, missed assignments, and unneeded angst for all involved.  I’ve long since gotten past the notion I might be bothersome or that I’m somehow an inferior employee if I needed to seek guidance a second time on the same topic.  Keeping everyone on the same page and moving forward is ultimately the most crucial concern.  So, ask your questions and keep everyone informed on your progress

Responsiveness Breeds Trust, Breeds Longer-Term Relationships

Do you have a go-to plumber, HVAC, or IT person that you’ve called for years? I’m sure they do quality work and offer a fair price. But I bet the reason they got the chance, that they even got their foot-in-the-door, is because they were responsive.  They returned your call, they were there when you needed them; and not just once, but time and time again.  There was a repeated pattern of responsiveness, and you grew to trust them.  And you know what? Those satisfied customers, those over-the-top-excited-about-their-service customers, are more than happy to tell their colleagues in the business about you.  Business 101 tells us it is far easier to keep an existing customer than to find a new one.  Be this go-to trusted employee to help your organization be the go-to trusted choice for your customers.

Responsiveness is entirely within your control on every occasion.  So be responsive, be there for others.  You’ll not only be a better version of yourself, but you’ll help build a level of respect for yourself and the organization you represent. That leads to success for everyone.

What are your thoughts? Do you see ways to build responsiveness in your workplace? Connect with us and share your thoughts!