The chasing count
My team reminded me this week that one of our stated client outcomes is a goodbye, as we wrapped up a two year successful engagement. I am reading Calamity Club and have fallen in love with the characters, and it's hard to say goodbye as I'm nearing the end of the book. In the same way, I get invested in the success of the people I work with and their stories, and walking away is challenging, even if it's the right thing to do.
In this case, I've worked with this company for two years, and in that time the founder doubled the business. In an industry facing a real threat from AI, his team got ahead of it by putting AI to work in their own processes. Good people were augmented by an Ace Integrator, who brought structure and allocated clear responsibilities, and backed them to make decisions. The visionary now has room to do what he does best, and I get to hand them over to the people who'll help them through the next phase. For someone in the business of freeing founders, I reckon that's worth celebrating.
In the same week, we signed the contracts on our second SME investment, joining the team at a student accommodation business. We started the investment business just under two years ago with a line I rather liked: "Don't take the money. Be the money." I had Roger Federer and On running shoes in mind, which is about as close as my investment career is likely to get to Wimbledon. The team was already securing tenants for next year at a property they'd acquired. I also handed over much of the planning for our own quarterly review. After two years of helping another founder give his team room to run, it seemed only fair to grant mine the same courtesy.
Over the past two weeks, I've written about giving your team enough clarity to communicate without sending every paragraph through the founder's rewrite department, and about giving clients an early win they can see and a piece of work they can own. My speaking coach Rich Mulholland calls it creating thirsty horses. I was reminded of that consulting client we imagined last week, the one who got a welcome email, a questionnaire, another meeting and then had to be chased to take part. If you're the person doing the chasing, it's worth asking what would have got the work moving earlier.
Which brings me to Friday night in Paris. The Springboks went into half-time 21–7 down and spent the second half chasing the scoreboard. We've become rather good at that, especially when the Bomb Squad comes on and the game starts to swing. This time we got within two points. For me, the aerial battle was the difference. Damian Willemse, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Morné van den Berg, better known as Krappies, all looked a little off their usual game. On the flipside, that man DuPont once again underscored his value. So we were chasing… and it was exhausting. To play, for sure, but also to watch.
The metaphor? Chasing people feels a lot like chasing the scoreboard. A quick "Any update?" can get the proposal out or the invoice sent, which is why it feels like leadership. By the third nudge on the same job, though, you're the one remembering what's due, noticing what's late and getting it moving again. It's easier to take control early, while everyone's agreeing who owns the work, when it's due and what happens if it gets stuck. When your team can carry the follow-through, you get those hours back for growth, clients and the parts of the business you love.
Cal Newport describes the cost of running work through back-and-forth messages in A World Without Email. Think about a proposal that takes a WhatsApp to find the latest version, an email to work out who can approve the discount and another message to check whether it went to the client. Each exchange pulls somebody away from their work. Agree where the final proposal lives, who can approve the discount and when it goes out, and the next proposal has a path the team can follow. Cal Newport, A World Without Email
PG's Pro Tip
Keep a chase log for one working week. Every time you follow up on something already agreed, record what you chased, who you asked, when it was due and roughly how many minutes you spent checking and nudging. Count each nudge, including repeats.
Add up the time and look for repeats. Group your nudges by piece of work. If getting one proposal out took three follow-ups, look at where the work first got stuck.
Fix one recurring chase. Use the prompt below, agree on one change with your team and try it for a week. Count how many times you still have to follow up.
Here's my one-week chase log: [paste log]. Group repeat nudges by piece of work. Show the number of nudges and total minutes for each, then classify each chase as "needs a rule" when the next step or decision is unclear, "needs an owner" when accountability is unclear, or "needs a reminder that sends itself" when the owner and process are clear but a deadline or trigger gets missed. Flag missing details. Recommend one recurring chase to fix next week and draft the rule, ownership agreement or automatic reminder I can take to my team.
Is your team getting better at following through, or are you getting better at chasing?
There are four seats left for our Marketing & Sales Starter Kit workshop on Wednesday 25 November, from 09:00 to 11:00 at Workshop17 Kloof Street in Cape Town. We'll work on how you explain what you do and build a marketing kit your team can use. Book your seat.
Regards,
PG
Comments