101 Tips for Telecommuters—Successfully Manage Your Work, Team, Technology and Family

81. Follow-Up for Best Results

As a telecommuter, you are a prime candidate for developing absolutely superb follow-up skills. Since you need to work with and through so many other people—colleagues, vendors, co-workers, suppliers, team members, contractors, managers—to accomplish your goals, expert follow-up skills can be essential to your ultimate success. When you hone these skills for use, especially with your external partners, it conveys a sense of significance to their work, communicates its importance to you, and clearly establishes a standard of excellence for the way in which you manage and value your work.

Well-planned and consistent follow-up behavior is not a license to micro-manage. Nothing will frustrate and demoralize your external ...