Introduction

In government offices, with Insurance companies, in relations of Customer/Client and Service Provider and even in corporate world, at times we follow-up with the concerned person to know and to ensure if our work has been done or not. I personally don’t like this act of follow-ups; I don’t encourage such activities and I don’t appreciate that. I feel that by following-up you are insulting the other person. If someone need to follow-up with me or if someone follow-up with me, I feel insulted. So, what is the solution? Whether we should follow-up? Who should follow-up? In this write-up, I will be sharing few examples and will try to find a solution.

Let’s understand

We are social animals and we cannot do all the things on our own. I cannot issue a license for myself. I cannot sell a movie ticket to myself. If I am not a pilot, I cannot fly my plane. I cannot fill my petrol tank. I cannot approve my own loan. In case of operation, I cannot operate myself. I cannot issue an insurance policy to myself. I cannot take my own interview and hire myself. Can I? We do follow-ups when part of our work is done by another person. We do follow-ups when we delegate some of our work. We need to follow-up when our performance, our growth, our success, our career, even our routine life is partly dependable on the work of some other person (s).

I am of the opinion that if someone is following-up with you, then all or any of the following is a reason for that:

1) You are lazy.

2) You are not a good planner.

3) You are not aware of the importance and value of time.

4) You are poor in Time Management

5) You are not aware of your own limits.

6) You have a habit of procrastinating.

7) You don’t know how to prioritize your work.

8) You have made a wrong commitment.

I will be the last person to accept a reason that XYZ is very busy, he doesn’t have time and hence you need to be reminded.

Why you want others to follow-up?

1) One of the parties is seeking some benefit from the other person. It can be monetary or otherwise. For example you are a principle of a very good college and have applied for your driving license where MR. Y is working, who is having a college going daughter. You got into a mutual understanding that you will give admission to Mr. Y’s daughter and he will give you a driving license without testing your driving skills. Though this leads to Corruption but this is one of the cases where Follow-up might be required. Or you have applied for a loan of 5 million Dollars and the person who is authorized to sanction your loan is asking you to give him 0.2 million dollars. In these cases, the other person will not approve your license or loan, till the time you give his due.

2) Ego Clash or Personality clash might be another reason that you are not doing the work of another person and hence “wanting” him or her to follow-up with you.

3) Sheer Pleasure that you draw by not carrying forward the work of another person and thereby making an attempt to show-off your importance, power and authority.

4) Someone is growing faster than your own growth, and then also you might just keep on lingering and not do the work, because you are afraid and you have fear.

5) You enjoy procrastination. You have a problem and you feel that by postponing the problem or by ignoring the problem, you can solve the problem.

How to plan?

1) You are the master of your own time. Plan your time in such a manner so that you can do all your assignments well on time and don’t give any opportunity or reason for anyone to follow-up with you.

2) Understand your capacity. Be Proactive. Don’t make false commitments.

3) Don’t make open commitments. Always make time bond commitments. Here, I like to share one example. I had problem with my hand-phone and went to the customer care executive and he told me, “Sir, it will take some time”. I asked, “How Much Time”. He said, “I don’t know. I cannot commit but it will take sometime”. I suggested, “One day, One Week, One Fortnight or One Month or even more, how much time it will take?” He said, “One Week”.

4) Be dedicated to your work. Be a good planner. Everybody is busy. But it comes to being a busy person, I can only think of people responsible for multiple things; people responsible for many tasks and assignments. If I think of such people, they can be Department Heads or Location Heads, Group Heads, Country Heads, CEO’s, Managing Directors, Prime Ministers’ or Presidents. Is there anyone else, who can be busier than these people? In one of my previous employments, a company worth of 1000 million dollars and a manpower of 7000 employees, where our CEO use to get 500 emails in a day, he was able to manage his in such a manner, so that he can read all those mails, direct those mails to appropriate Functional Heads for their action. All this in just 24 hours time.

5) Value your time and value the time of other person.

Who should follow-up?

As I feel that if you are following-up with some person (If it is not a Government Office) you are actually insulting that person. I also feel that following-up should be from top to bottom in hierarchy. I can be lazy. I can be a poor time manager. I can be a poor planner. I might be lacking some knowledge and hence not able to do my work on time. I don’t expect such traits in my boss or reporting manager or senior or Superior Official. The very fact that he is senior to me, my superior and my boss, to me it implies that he or she is more knowledgeable, more intelligent, more efficient and a better planner. What do you think and feel? I am right in my hypothesis and theorem??

Conclusion

If you feel happy when others follow-up with you and thereby insult you and crush you then you can continue with your present state and process. If you don’t want others to follow-up with you, then plan your work, plan your day and plan your time. Don’t procrastinate. Don’t linger on. Plan your work. Value your time. I understand that for every work or every action or every activity there can be two answers, Yes or NO; Right or Wrong; I know or I don’t know; I want to do or I don’t want to do; I can do or I cannot do (Think about all the activities that you do in a day, is there anything which can have third answer). Hence give appropriate answer on time. So that, if you cannot do some of a things those things can be done through other resources. With this note, I conclude this write-up.