60 Seconds That Make a Difference to Your Coworkers
Want to make a difference to your coworkers? Here are four scenarios to illustrate how much of a difference 60 seconds can make:
Scenario 1: A coworker calls and asks for your advice on a situation they are dealing with. A week later, you spend 60 seconds on a quick email or phone call to see how everything turned out. The message the internal customer gets? I care.
Scenario 2: Fred has promised to get you something by the end of the day. It’s 3:30, and you know he’s overloaded with a lot of competing priorities. You spend 60 seconds dashing off a quick, friendly reminder email. It jogs Fred’s memory, and you’ve just helped him meet the deadline.
Scenario 3: You’re working on something for a coworker. There have been a few glitches that might affect the timeline. You send them off a quick email to keep them in the loop as to where things stand. They can now be prepared with a ‘plan B’ in case the delay is too long.
Scenario 4: You and a colleague just finished a half-hour telephone call about an issue the two of you are working on. You spend 60 seconds on an email – just confirming who’s going to do what. You’ve just prevented potential misunderstandings, and you’ve created something you can both use as a reminder.
The point of all of these scenarios is, of course, that following up doesn’t have to take a lot of time, but it can have a huge, positive impact.
“We might not be able to influence world events, but we most certainly can exert great influence in our own little parts of the universe. We can impact our families, our friends, our coworkers, our companies, our lives. We have an opportunity, every day, to change the odds in our favour.”