Read Anyone Like a Book, Chapter 5: Timeliness and Responsiveness

This is the fifth article in a series. In chapter one, we learned how to read people by their appearance. In chapter two, we learned how to read people by their level of knowledge. In chapter three we learned how to read people by their associates and associations. In chapter four we learned how to read people by how self-aware they are. In this chapter, we will explore how to read people by how timely and responsive they are.

People who are timely get things done – and they are focused on accomplishing the right things. People who are responsive are better prepared and can be counted on to do more than what is asked or expected of them. Conversely, people who are not timely are procrastinators by habit and will waste your time as well as theirs. People who are not responsive are ill-prepared and routinely under-perform in every assignment. Knowing how to read how timely and responsiveness people are will save you a lot of time, money and frustration in deciding whether to deal with them.

So, how do you read how timely and responsive one is likely to be in your dealings with him or her?

People who are timely are on time and use time wisely.

If you schedule a call or face-to-face meeting with a timely person, he or she is never late. You can set your watch by a timely professional. Timely people never give you the impression they think their time is more valuable than yours by keeping you waiting.

Timely people make a point of never wasting your time or theirs. At the beginning of the call or meeting they probe you for your objectives and your time constraints for the meeting. They then proceed to address your objectives, or their objectives (if you are the one selling to them), in a coherent and organized fashion.

During a meeting with a timely person, s/he often makes notes. If s/he promises to do something, like make an introduction, s/he often does it right in front of you, rather than promise to get back to you. If you casually ask her whether she has a daily to-do list, she will proudly acknowledge she does and that she measures herself daily against finishing what’s on it.

Conversely, people who are not timely are usually running late. They often brush off their tardiness with an excuse, but rarely with an apology. Some of them are filled with self-importance and believe it’s their right to keep you waiting while they finish up something they are doing. After exchanging pleasantries, they will often ramble on about their day or unrelated matters or problems, rather than focusing on the business between you. Despite their promises and best intentions, their follow through is often poor. They rarely do what they say they are going to do with a high degree of certainty.

People who are timely separate the important from the unimportant.

Timely people are very good at compartmentalizing their daily to-dos according to their personal life and professional life. They don’t have a mental to-do list, they have a physical one. Each item on the list is prioritized and in sync with their larger goals and objectives, especially those which provide them with their living.

Timely people are good at delegating the unimportant tasks. They have a system for accomplishing tasks with the least amount of wasted time and effort. They see their time as their most valuable resource and they don’t squander it on unimportant matters.

Conversely, people who are not timely usually don’t have a to-do list and have no clue how to separate the important from the unimportant. In fact, they waste an inordinate amount of time chasing their tails on mundane tasks. They never get around to the truly important, because they have no sense of priority. They are the people who always say, “Where did my day go?” If you take the time to assess what of any consequence they got done, you conclude, “not much of anything.”

Timely people spend most of their time on things in the upper left quadrant of this matrix:

Source: First suggested by President Dwight B. Eisenhower. Later popularized in the book, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”

President Dwight D. Eisenhower famously said, "I have two kinds of problems: the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent."

‘Important but not Urgent’ activities have outcomes that lead timely people to achieve their goals (and your goals). They are usually done in steps over a period of time, but timely people make progress on them steadily. It is a behavior that allows them to also achieve what you need them to do in your dealings with them over the course of your entire relationship.

‘Important and Urgent’ are activities that often demand a timely person’s immediate time and he is very good at attending to them promptly. It is a behavior that allows him to be responsive to you when you need him the most.

‘Not important and not Urgent’ are the routine activities and mundane tasks everyone must deal with in their career and personal lives. Timely people either automate them or delegate them. They cross these things off their list very quickly.

‘Not important but Urgent’ activities are typically things that prevent timely people from accomplishing the right things (and they know it). These are the dramas and mini-crisis’s that others attempt to saddle a timely person with. They know how to dispense with them quickly, or deflect them.

People who are not timely spend an inordinate amount of their time on the things in the lower right quadrant. Everything is urgent. They are always saying how busy they are, but they rarely analyze what they are busy about. They rarely have time for themselves, no less time for a productive relationship with you.

People who are responsive are usually the best prepared. They almost always exceed your expectations.

A responsive person gets back to you right away. S/he shows up to every meeting with you having done some homework. S/he thinks ahead. S/he has done some research and gathered data. S/he asks good questions. S/he presents multiple ideas and options. Whatever your dealings with a responsive and prepared person, he or she consistently performs better than expected.

Conversely, a non-responsive person is slow to respond and is rarely prepared. He shows up blind. He has no agenda and no facts. These people will waste your time trying to come up to speed on the spot, and throw things on the wall to see what sticks, rather than presenting thoughtful and well-researched options.

Timely and responsive people are generally proactive. Non-timely and non-responsive people are generally reactive.

Timely and responsive people are resourceful and they almost always finish what they start.

Perhaps the most important way to read timely and responsive people from those who are neither, is by observing if they finish what they start (even if it is not perfect).

People who finish what they start are resourceful by habit. They stick with a project or commitment, they don’t abandon it easily. They never take something on if they don’t think they will be able to finish it within the time and quality expected. They never over promise and under deliver. They have a reputation for perseverance.

Conversely, you can observe the opposite behavior in non-timely and non-responsive people. They rarely finish what they start. They take on too much and are easily distracted. They often have good intentions but habitually fail to live up to them. They often use the excuse, “Hey, I tried, but couldn’t finish.” In reality, they don’t try that hard. They give up easily, especially when encountering a hurdle or resistance.

A timely and responsive person will tell you “no” when s/he doesn’t believe s/he has adequate skills or bandwidth to deliver the desired result. A non-timely and non-responsive person is quick to say “yes” without thinking about whether s/he can deliver to expectation.

In summary, timeliness and responsiveness go hand-in-hand. These attributes also define one’s preparedness. You can generally predict how people will perform by observing how timely, responsive and prepared they are in your calls and meetings with them. You can also get a sense of the likely outcome by talking with others who have dealt with them on projects about their timeliness, responsiveness, preparedness, and whether or not they finished it according to expectations.

Next up, the final chapter: Reading people by how polished and self-directed they are. Stay tuned...