WORDS TO LEAD BY - Timely

Continuing with lessons from Wally Adamchik's book, titled Construction Leadership from A to Z which explores "26 Words to Lead By."

This session's word is TIMELY

TIMELY

Timely - occurring at a suitable time; seasonable; opportune; well-timed

"How does a project get to be a year behind schedule? One day at a time." - Fred Brooks

(c) Renjith Krishnan

The 1916 short story "Obvious Adams" shares five tests of obviousness, the fifth one being: Is the time ripe? Sometimes the time has passed and you should let the idea go. Sometimes the time just isn't right yet and you would do better to hold on to your idea.

We believe leaders must be outstanding and ruthless in their use of time.

Team time is about changing the question from "What should I be doing now?" to "What is the best use of our time?" This recognizes that top performance is a team effort requiring close synchronization of values and effort. When you are late to the meeting you called, you are in total ignorance of the concept of team time. When you don't get back to someone when you say you will, you are violating team time. This is a surefire way to tick people off and confirm a lack of leadership on your part.

...One of the marks of a professional is to be on time.

Just be on time.

"He [the manager] meant that I should not try to do everything at once but meet my deadlines as they came. If I was going to miss a deadline, I needed to see that it got handled by somebody else or to let my boss know that we might miss it. Keeping my manager's advice in mind, I only committed to what I knew I could accomplish, and I prioritized my work in a way that allowed me to succeed as an individual and also as a member of the team."

"Punctuality is the stern virtue of men of business, and the graceful courtesy of princes." - Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

Timeliness Jumpstart:

• Cut 20% from your things-to-do list.
• Use a calendar system.
• Complete a time log and analyze your day / week.
• Be on time.

What time is it?
  What time may I expect you?
    Will it be done on time?
      What time am I supposed to be there?
        .
        .
        .
      I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TIME!

Well, we all have all the time there is - 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, or as we commonly hear now, "24/7". That's all there is. What separates winners from losers and leaders from followers is how they use that time. Let's choose to be on time today and everyday!

Donald G Rosenbarger
Senior Vice President
Delta Companies Inc