For anyone who has or is working for me, the information I am going to share with you in this series is all too familiar. I’m pretty passionate about sharing these tidbits with my team and advocating their use in our day-to-day activities. I’ve seen the benefits of using this advice throughout my career, so I’m passionate about “spreading the word,” hoping to help others as others helped me. I would appreciate comments on this series and please feel free to forward these posts to anyone you feel may benefit as well.

Closing the Loop

Someone once gave me a great piece of advice that changed the way I did my job. Three simple words: “close the loop.” It sounds so simple, so obvious, but you would be surprised how few of us do it and even more surprised by how effective it is. For example, if someone asks you to send an email or make a phone call, once you have completed the task simply send an email back to the requester with a simple “done.” I can’t tell you how effective this is or how much people appreciate it. So the next time you finish a project for your boss or co-worker, surprise them and close the loop with one simple word, DONE.