Not A Fan of the Words “Can’t” and “Too Busy”
Throughout my career and since my retirement last year, I’ve never been a fan of the words “can’t” and “too busy” as I consider them to be cop-outs. More specifically, using these words is merely just an excuse and a crutch for not being able to do what you should be doing when you should be doing it. The use of these words denotes significant weakness and is inexcusable. Seemingly, many folks today would rather ignore their responsibilities, avoid confrontation, and “sweep it under the rug” hoping it will go away by practicing avoidance. If one is in a role of being a leader and they say they “can’t” or they’re “too busy”, they should be immediately removed from that role!
While I’m at it, another “pet peeve” of mine is when you reach out to someone, they don’t seem to be able to get back to you in a timely manner. Seldom does anyone ever answer their phone anymore forcing you to leave a voicemail in the hope they’ll get back to you, but will probably not get back with you. I’ve always believed it a necessary courtesy to get back with someone as quickly as possible and “back in the day” established something we called the “Sundown Rule”. The “Sundown Rule” established your responsibility to get back to everyone who may have reached out to you that same day by sundown.
I’ve always used the number “4” thinking it was my lucky number (it’s never lived up to being lucky) and that I was born on the “fourth”. Some examples of when I would use the number “4” is when I would give people notes to complete–it would always be “4” notes–no fewer and no more because I knew it would be attainable; I would set “4” goals and break each goal into “4” smaller easily attainable goals; if giving a “pocket speech” to a group, it would be for only “4” minutes; and each day in order to follow the “Sundown Rule”, I would begin getting back to everyone at “4” PM.
When it comes to what makes an effective manager (now thought of as an antiquated term today), I felt one needed to consistently practice each day these “4” things: 1) they needed to be extremely organized; 2) they needed to be talented in implementing their plans; 3) they needed to be an excellent communicator; and 4) they needed to always follow-up making sure the day’s goals had been achieved. It was also very important to: 1) set a deadline; 2) get a commitment from all that the deadline could be met; 3) if for some reason it appeared the deadline set wasn’t going to be met, communicate it immediately (if one didn’t, to me it was an integrity issue); and 4) always have a Correction of Errors (COE) meeting to discuss and create a Plan of Action (POA) for any opportunities that may have arose. Again, using the number “4”.
Two things came into prominence in the business world in the mid-1980’s which made operating in corporate America extremely challenging. In my experience, I had no issues whatsoever dealing with the Personnel Department, but had many misgivings dealing with what became Human Resources (HR) as they were given the responsibility to delve into areas they truly had no business in as their capacity was tremendously expanded going far beyond being administrative. And then the huge expansion of the legal departments being forced to deal with young, just-out-of-law school, attorneys who knew absolutely nothing about anything.
Management decisions of any magnitude had to always go through both HR and Legal, not concerned with whether the decision was the right one, but rather what could be the potential cost to the company in what was becoming a very litigious environment. Sorry, as I always followed what I called the “85/15 Rule” meaning if the decision to be made positively affected 85% of those involved vs possibly negatively affecting 15% of those involved it was the right decision to make. Hey, you’re never going to please all of the “troops” with a decision you make which affects them. As John Lydgate said, “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.” Personally, I needed not HR nor Legal to help me make decisions as they always just got in the way having no idea in the world what they were doing. At least, that was my humble opinion.
The problem businesses face today with the gobbling up of companies is the loss of what once was a corporate culture and the inability to foster a sense of loyalty amongst its associates. Many members of management are hired from the outside and placed in tremendous positions of responsibility where they don’t have the experience, training, or expertise to every truly be successful as the practice of promoting from within has all but disappeared. Thus, company morale is drastically negatively affected, standards and expectations are not clearly defined as training the human resource has diminished, and there is a lack of accountability in the workplace. It’s now only a numbers game due to technology as we’ve lost sight in the importance of training and development in order to retain our people.
So, it’s no wonder, getting back on topic as I digress, that so many I come into contact with tell me they “can’t” or that they’re “too busy”. When someone tells me they “can’t” do anything I find upon investigation that they really just “won’t” do anything due normally to a lack of training, a loss of proper communication from one layer to another without knowledge, or the outsourcing of personnel around the world in order to save a dime or two. On the other hand, when someone tells me they are “too busy”, I say they’re actually unorganized, failing to properly delegate certain tasks while not holding staff accountable, and definitely lack the ability to manage interruptions unable to focus and finish almost anything not understanding the concept of multitasking.
Honestly, both practices are very prevalent today especially when calling a vendor with a question about their services. One thing’s for sure, they don’t want you to speak to a person as you must go through a number of prompts (press 2, now press 3, answer these questions for your security, press 5) and then wait on hold for an intolerable amount of time so the person you finally talk with, whose English is not recognizable (usually from the Philippines) and very difficult to communicate with, tells you they “can’t” do anything to help you. Next, you ask to speak to a supervisor, another long wait, and finally another I “can’t” help you!
I’d like to make an appointment to service my whatever and the answer is we might be able to get to you next month because we’re just “too busy”. At this stage of our lives, La Bear and the Baby Boomer seemingly have a bunch of appointments with doctors; that is, if you can ever make an appointment as they are “too busy”! Help us if we ever have an emergency and can’t be seen for three months. And then when you get to your doctor’s office, you wait forever and if you question it, we’re “too busy”!
Needless to say, I’m on a tangent and for good reason. “Back in the day”, I always “could” and I was never “too busy”! Bottom line is if you are one who “can’t” and are “too busy”, it’s truly nothing but “BS”!!