Do not be late

There is just something about time and tardiness, as you will see in the following stories:

- FRANCIS J. KONG

An upset boss says, "This is the third time you've been late for work this week. Do you know what that means?"

The employee responded that it was only Wednesday.

And here is another one: An irate boss says: "You're four hours late! What's the matter?"

Employee: "I fell from the 2nd floor this morning."

Boss: "That's 20 feet tall! It shouldn't take you more than five seconds!"

Trust is one of the essential elements of leadership. It is earned over time and maintained by consistency, reliability, and meeting obligations.

As seen in this paper, a recent study conducted by the University of Toronto and Stanford University has established a fascinating finding: people rate work as being of lower quality if it is submitted late – even when the quality of the work is the same as that submitted on time.

This has profound implications for leaders.

Leadership means every leader has to know that every action they take speaks a lot. Any leader or team member delivering their work promptly sends a message of discipline, responsibility, and dependability.

Conversely, whenever people are late, or deadlines are not met, it conveys the wrong message of disorder and unethical behavior.

The study found that managers and executives who were the evaluators of the work rated the late work as lower in quality than the on-time work – even though the content was the same.