John Adair's 100 Greatest Ideas for Brilliant Communication

Idea 80: Always follow up with action points

Action this day.

Winston Churchill, British statesman and former prime minister

Good follow-up is just as important as the meeting itself. Peter Drucker and I once discussed this point over a working lunch on strategic leadership. Peter instanced Alfred Sloan as a master of making sure things happened after meetings. Sloan, who headed General Motors from the 1920s until the 1950s, was, he told me, ‘the most effective business executive I have known’.

Drucker had observed Sloan in action. He always announced the purpose at the beginning of a formal meeting. Then he listened. He rarely spoke himself except to clarify a misunderstanding and he never took notes. He summed up at the end, thanked the participants ...