We all have these encounters…
In this day and age, it is not easy for many of us to “Jump Ship” and hope the next one is more efficient.

You appear to assume an egalitarian workplace, at least within the executive branch/es?

Like the British Cabinet, some people seem to have a sense of entitlement, whereby they are “more equal than others” (primus inter pares”)

For ‘phone calls, the arrogant will assume that the perceived underling will call back if it’s impoirtant enough, so why waste their time calling back when the crisis may already have passed?

How can we assume competence when Galbraith pointed out a long time ago that “people rise to a position of incompetence, so we are governed by incompetents”?

This may have entered an especially viral phase with the cancerous expansionism of the Federal bureaucracy.

This is so true about clients. How they treat you is more than likely how they treat others.

I even caught myself answering the phone in a less than enthusiastic way when a friend called. Unacceptable. Totally unacceptable. I’m usually very upbeat yet was preoccupied. No excuse; as you said, I chose to answer the phone!

Keep the good stuff coming.

~ Steve

I would go even further, it is incredible how most part of people in all levels does not do the basics also in their core activity, not only on the behavioral side.

I remember the begining of my carrer, when I was a sales rep, and got lots of positive feedback just for doing what I was asked, nothing else. When I become a manager I understood the reason for the compliments, I’ve found out that for some reason people does not plan ahead visits, forget to bring price lists and samples, does not read the agreed sales training lessons, are always delayed with expenses reports and so on. And this is not an entry level issue, as we progress in our carrers we can notice that managers does not proper follow the evaluation process of their team, directors fail to meet guidelines of strategic planning cycle, etc.

I really believe that what moves the needle on companies are traits related with leadership, vision, people skills, courage, communication, etc. But as you said, sometimes it is hard to develop those important leadership capabilities if the basics are not in place.

Its been a while since I connected with you. I hope you are doing well and thriving at Bluepoint. What you say is so true and necessary to understand. It is not so much time management but self awareness and self management. When we take someone else’s valuable time - we are stealing a precious resource with no respect for that other persons value on that resource. Its this awareness of the other that causes us to honour their time and their preparation. My hope is you get the kind of clients that reflect your values and your deep commitment to honour, respect and integrity which is such a theme at Blue Point.

Warm regards and wishes

Jonathan