The value of being on time

There have been career consequences to almost everyone I know who is habitually late for things. I firmly believe that if you are late more than a very small percentage of the time, you will have a stunted career in management.

 

Being on time is something you have control over and needs to be a habit. A solid habit will fully accommodate the truelly unexpected events in life that may cause you to be late.

 

You will always be a distraction to the group and speaker if you enter meetings or class’s late. You generally miss the welcome, purpose, and sometimes critical instructions. If the facilitator (could be your boss or some other powerful person) has to repeat all that for you, it will kind of tick them off and they will remember you in a negative way.

 

There is always a cost for other people if they have to wait for you. Their time is valuable and they will form an opinion about you. That opinion will likely be: You don’t care about others, your not interested, or your not committed.

 

In any case the end result we be that you will increasingly find yourself “ out of the loop” on many things. That’s a difficult place to lead from.