One of easiest ways to disappoint a direct is to say you’ll do something and fail to follow-up. Once your direct believes you won’t follow-up on a problem, they’ll stop coming to you with their problems. Don’t let that happen!

I once asked a mentor why they were so good at following up. They gave me three simple rules:

  1. write it down (and define the next steps)
  2. act on one of next steps you defined
  3. report success or failure to your direct