Follow-up Is Important To Success

A key to effective leadership that is often overlooked is proper follow-up. Too many untrained individuals, when thrust into leadership positions, often mistakenly believe that once they assign or delegate someone to do a particular task or duty, that the "job gets done." In fact, in the majority of cases, this is not the case.

As difficult as it sometimes is for a new leader to create and implement a program, that program requires careful attention and follow-up if it is to optimize its chance of succeeding. In my three decades of training leaders and managers, I have never stopped being amazed at how many of these so-called leaders naively and mistakenly "drop the ball" when it comes to effective follow-up.

I have come to believe that leaders do not effectively follow-up for a number of reasons, including:

(1) The leaders do not know how to properly follow up. Like so many aspects of leadership, individuals in leadership positions need to be trained how and why to follow up.

(2) They are afraid to offend, or appear to be condescending if they follow up. One of the basic truisms of effective leadership is that effective leaders cannot and should not concern themselves with being popular. Effective leadership requires action!

(3) Follow up requires interpersonal skills. Unfortunately, once again, many individuals do not innately possess those skills, and effective leadership training teaches those skills. However, interpersonal skills also require patience, understanding, effort, and work!

(4) Too many "leaders" do not understand the basics of time management, and how to effectively use their time. Ineffective leaders often appear swamped by the workload and responsibility of leadership.

(5) Follow-up is a necessary part of an action plan. However, since action plans are not often properly designed or detailed enough, and often do not contain the important timeline, follow-up is often a victim.

These are but a few of the tenets of follow up. Without effective follow up, even the best of ideas, plans, and programs have a poor chance of successful implementation. Those organizations that stress leadership training, and have an effective program, include a segment on follow up and its importance. Those organizations invariably experience far greater success rates than those that do not.