Fostering A Sense Of Urgency Company-Wide
Saturday, October 8, 2011 at 9:20AM I find that a heightened sense of urgency is a key quality of successful people. When it comes to hiring at Open English, we certainly seek out “smart” people but we’ve realized that what determines someone’s success long-term is their ability to just get the job done (quickly!).
So what does it mean to have a sense of urgency? Here’s my practical definition:
- It never takes you more than a day to reply to an email . A day in a start-up is an eternity!
- If someone on your team asks you for something on Friday afternoon, you don’t wait until Monday to begin looking at it. In a startup, shutting down completely for the weekend is rarely an option…
Not every exec is suited for a startup environment and that’s okay. But to be successful you have to build your team with people who share your sense of urgency.
So how do you figure out who has a sense of urgency and who doesn’t? You can’t always tell early on, but there are a few tips that have worked for me:
- Ask focused questions about what their past deadlines and project timetables were like.
- Even if you work through a recruiter, find a reason to contact your potential hire directly at least once to ask additional questions or request information, just to test responsiveness.
- What if you discover a lack of urgency after hiring? I’d say cut your losses fast. Chances are, it usually won’t get much better.
I’m not saying everyone has to work 24/7 or never enjoy weekends. But you can’t totally check out either. You can still have plenty of fun…but carry your phone and reply back to important issues, even if it’s just a quick text or email to let others know you’re thinking about it and specifying when you’ll be able to work on it.
Stay accessible and foster a sense of urgency company-wide!
Reader Comments (2)
Greetings Andres, and thanks for the interesting and concise blog posting.
Before sharing a few thoughts, I just wanted to congratulate you on the success of Open English. I’m from the U.S., but live in Guadalajara, Mexico. I work for a U.S. company, work remotely from Guadalajara (everything via email, phone calls, VPN access, etc.) and I travel back and forth regularly as well. I live in Mexico and became bilingual not because it was a requirement for anything, but because I wanted to be able to live fully in my two home and two cultures. I enjoy your commercials immensely and think that the combination of humor, the quick references to “institutional learning”, the inclusion of short, excellent, English pronunciation incorporated in them, is spot-on. I always get a hearty laugh and at the same time empathize with people who want to tackle becoming English speakers. I love English and through the process of having learned Spanish as a second language, I love it as well. I applaud you on helping so many people reach their goal.
This is the first time I’ve responded to a blog post, but figured there’s a first time for everything. I read your blog post with interest because this topic (or perhaps complaint) has come up on the management team at my own work; that, at times, there is no sense of “urgency”. I admire that you have identified this as a topic for your team and for potential hires. In the spirit of sharing, if you’ll permit me, I thought I’d post a bit about my own observations and experience and expand on a couple of yours.
How creating a sense of urgency may not get you what you want from your team:
I suppose some of this comes down to how a management team expresses what they mean, and also if the tools and information they provide actually produce the desired outcome. In some ways, creating a sense of urgency does not always produce the results you want. Urgency can create chaos if not directed in the appropriate way. To instill urgency without clarity can make a team feel pushed but without a sense of “why” and create a lack of clear direction. You can create a sense of urgency but still not get your team to prioritize correctly. You can also create a sense of urgency and still not instill responsiveness and attentiveness as part of your corporate culture. I believe that it comes down to how you communicate the “ingredients” that foster a sense of urgency. In a startup, or really any entrepreneurial business, being flexible, nimble, accessible, responsive and at the same time unified in how you prioritize, is critical.
Instill responsiveness and attentiveness and be clear about that means:
Be attentive and responsive to email:
I completely agree that responding to email quickly is imperative. But let’s face it; sometimes what is asked for in an email is not answerable at the time it’s received nor possibly in a single day. However, as you point out, a reply is better than no reply. Let your team know that a fully read and evaluated inbox is a goal in day to day business. If the question or issue proposed in an email is not answerable that day, reply anyway. Confirm that the email has been received, that you’re looking into it and will get back to them by “X” (the following day, the end of the week, etc.)
Check and respond to voicemail:
Like email, if someone takes the time to call and leave a message, call them back. If you are unable to call them back and have their contact info, send them an email and acknowledge that you have received their message. To not respond creates the impression (even without intending to) that they are being ignored. Call, email, text; just somehow acknowledge it. Follow the above and respond to what you ca or provide them with a “when” if you can’t.
Give your team the tools to be attentive and responsive:
I agree that the days of “disengaging at 5pm” and taking the weekend “off”, especially in a startup or entrepreneurial businesses is not the norm. However, sometimes we do not provide our teams with the tools to be responsive. If we want them to pay attention to emails after 5pm or on the weekends, or answer a high priority phone call, give them the tools. Company cell phones with data plans and email, remote access to company email from computers offsite, VPN access to your network, whatever it takes, are all tools that support being attentive and responsive. We cannot desire attentiveness and responsiveness and not provide the correct tools to do it.
Emphasize prioritizing correctly:
This is a tough one. We must constantly engage our teams in the process and be clear about priorities. We all get bombarded with emails, calls and meeting that generate deadlines. We get requests with deadlines, and both our internal and external customers exert deadlines. So how do we prioritize correctly?
As managers, be clear:
The only way to assure that your team is prioritizing correctly is if the priorities have been communicated correctly. Teams are not psychic:
Managers: Communicate and get information to people that need it. Do not leave teams guessing about priorities. Make your objectives clear and engage your team in them.
Teams: Manage up! Copy your management on emails or texts when it seems best to keep them in the loop. It’s better to err on the side of over-informing than under-informing. Ask questions if you’re not sure about what you’re working on. If you’re not sure about how you should be organizing priorities to accommodate everything that’s going on, ask your team leadership. Management teams would more often prefer to assist in directing resources correctly than find out later that a team member has misinterpreted a priority or headed into a project which might impact the work that needs to be accomplished.
How to survive moving deadlines:
Deadlines can change on a daily basis. If your deadline for a project was Friday, but something else has come up that’s needed for a big meeting on Thursday, you’re going to have to shift gears. But we have to look at not only the prioritizing of our own work, but how meeting deadlines impacts the work of others. This requires both communicating within your team and managing up as well. When deadlines move, inform others. Let people know that work is shifting gears and that you may have a new deadline on your plate. I promise you that few people will complain about being informed or their advice about a deadline being solicited.
If we’re the ones slipping these items that cause moving deadlines into the mix…give some guidance. A simple parameter - “Any chance I could have this by the end of day”? “I really need this by Wednesday’s staff meeting.” “The client would really like to see this by Friday.” “When do you think you might be able to get this to me?” Do not make people guess. And leave the door open to answer questions.
In some ways these might appear to be overly-simplified concepts, perhaps even common sense to some. But I think we all know that the simplest things sometimes are the most obviously overlooked. Creating a sense of urgency only works when the information, communication and tools needed are in place to direct that energy in the right way. Urgency is about accomplishing priorities in an efficient, timely and effective manner. As I mentioned previously, to instill urgency without clarity can make a team feel pushed but without a sense of “why”. Give teams what they need by being clear about expectations and providing them the tools they need to get the work done and they will soon understand that a sense of urgency can be a healthy component of accomplishment and success.
Que siga todo el éxito de Open English y te mando muchos saludos desde la perla tapatía, Guadalajara.
Thanks! Very insightful response. Just sent you an email with my personal info. At your service for whatever you may need.
Saludos!
Andres