Closing Some Communication Gaps

This week’s tale from the human side of business.

I was meeting with Sue, a client who is a principal in a pretty large firm. She and her team are working on a high profile project. Another senior engineer, George, had been recruited to help Sue’s team out. George had a big project of his own.

For the second time, George had failed to finish work when he said he would. Sue’s frustration was that George had set an expectation for Sue that he would be done on Monday. When Monday rolled around, he hadn’t completed the work. Sue was livid.

“Why didn’t he tell me he couldn’t get the work done until Tuesday? I could have lived with that,” a frustrated Sue exclaimed. “As it was, I had to tell the boss that the report wasn’t ready for him to take into his Monday meeting with the client. You can imagine how happy he was at that.”

When I asked if George knew the boss needed the report, Sue said, “No, but he would have known if he would come to team meetings, but he doesn’t.”

Several things are at play here.

• George needs to learn the importance of setting realistic expectations. Don’t promise what you can’t deliver. He needs to understand the logic behind the deadline.
• Sue needs to let George know that the boss needed George’s report for his Monday meeting with the client. She needed to tell WHY the timing was critical.
• George needs to attend team meetings so he knows what’s going on. Even though he has a big project of his own, he is a critical member of Sue’s team and needs to participate that way.
• Sue needs to have one person take notes in team meetings, then write up and circulate the notes. That way, team members who are on vacation, out sick, or meeting with the client can be kept up to speed on what’s happening.

We need a favor

We are putting together material for an online coaching program for future leaders. We always say we take the mystery out of what they didn’t teach in engineering school. As a favor to us, click on the link below and tell us what the two toughest things are that you have had to learn as an owner, CEO, or manager.

Click Here to take survey

Thanks so much for your help. We will share collective responses in a future posting.