Part of a team leads job is following up on actions discussed with their team members. This is extremely important, but it’s also one that many leads fail on. The daily grind is distracting — so it’s important to learn not to fuck up.
Act on it.
Early on in my career, I had an amazing manager. They helped me overcome challenges, break out of my shell and meet different team members and ultimately succeed. Except, I had to push them — all the time.
It’s not your team members responsibility to keep track of your calendar.
You need to follow up. If your team member is saying something, listen. Digest the information and come up with an action item to help them win. What they’re saying is important — always.
Develop yourself.
The only way to follow up on others is to follow up on yourself.
So I’ve worked on this. A few techniques that helped me early on included
Jotting down all the notes
Listening (actively)
Breathing (deeply)
Meditating
Closing my eyes
Repeating what was said
Asking a plethora of questions
These techniques helped ground me, but they weren’t enough. I needed to develop a routine. So I created one:
Wake up (5am)
Stretch / Walk (1.5 hour)
Shower (20 minutes — yay on demand hot water)
Drink coffee and eat breakfast (1 hour)
Review my calendar (10 minutes)
Work (all kinds of fun stuff)
When I work I take regular breaks. Every hour I take a 10-minute break. These breaks typically include
Eating some healthy foods (nuts, fruits, water)
Playing with my dogs (2 Australian Shepherds)
Reading a book
Staring at my garden like a weird neighbor
I leave at 5 or 6 pm. Unless something urgent is happening, I’m out. The rest of the day is for me.
Notice, how nothing here is about following up on yourself? That’s because you now have a set amount of time. This restriction helps you define the important tasks you need to take care of at work — including following up with others and completing your own work.
Be in the moment.
Once you have a routine, it becomes much easier to be in the moment. When you’re in the moment, you can listen easily and ask thoughtful questions. These questions will help inform actionable items that you can follow up on.
What can you do to enable yourself to be in the moment? Remove all your distractions.
Close the door to your office
Move somewhere private
Put on noise canceling headphones
Close all other apps
Do a video call
Look at the other person on the call
Prepare for your meeting
Take notes down on pen and paper
Dress appropriately
Some of these might sound silly, except they have all helped me out personally. Putting in the effort in practice is important to develop empathy. It may not seem like it now, but developing a sub-routine for your meetings will help demonstrate to others how important it is for you and them.
Follow Up.
Alright, so we’ve discussed how to develop skills that complement following up. But, how do you follow up? Easy.
Put it on your calendar. Do it.
When you have an actionable item, place it on your calendar at that moment. Ensure that you have two reminders set. One reminder for the day before. The other reminder for four hours before.
Give yourself enough time to actually have more information for when you follow up. That means agreeing to when you’ll be following up with the other person. Then — do it.
If anything prevents you from following up with that person, let the other person know ahead of time. This will build trust. Don’t let the issue slide through the cracks.
Following up is about you. You need to be in a good place. Develop a routine to create capacity. Be in the moment to create substance. Follow up to build trust. Capacity, substance, and trust are all elements of a good leader that pays close attention to the team and themselves.