We have developed a bit of a tradition here in Guyana of working with our own time; when we get an invite for 9 o’ clock, we show up at 9:15 or 9:30 and sometimes we do not realize how much this hurts us.
We see other people showing up late and we believe that it is acceptable. However, in a real high performance world, if you do not show up on time and on time means being there at 9 o clock ready to perform, not arriving at 9 o’ clock and still needing that 15-20 minutes set up time. If you know that you will need a minute, five or ten to get yourself organized and get yourself ready to perform, you need to be there that amount of time before nine o’ clock; before the time that you are scheduled to perform. If you do not do that, it is always difficult for you to deliver at the highest level of performance that you are capable of and the only person you are selling short is yourself.
- So, step number one is to always make sure that you are on time and on time to deliver.
- Step number two; Once you are on time, keep working on your skills as well because if you are always on time, it makes you very reliable, very consistent and if you are the only option, you will always get the benefits; you will always be picked first because we can rely on you, which is very different from very high performers of which their high performance may go to their heads and they think they can show up late, but if people had a choice, they would rather pick reliability over someone who may never show up.
Once you have punctuality, keep the discipline, make sure that you remain punctual for life, whilst at the same time improving your skills because when you are on time and a high performer, you are invincible.
Source: http://www.vishnudoerga.com/punctuality/
