I’ve been in the same office building for almost 20 years, and I’ve seen a lot of other businesses come and go. For some reason—my longevity here I suppose—I’ve become the “3rd floor resident manager.”
That means if I’m in the men’s room and we are out of paper towels, I don’t just dry my hands on my pants and go on with my day. I dry my hands on my pants and then I email the property manager in our building to let her know we need more towels.
Recently, I emailed this property manager to tell her that a light was out on our hall and the handicap sticker on the ladies’ room door was about to fall off and both things needed replacing. Three weeks later, I noticed that neither problem had been fixed, so I forwarded her my original email and reminded her that both things still needed attention and now another light was out in the hall.
Her response: “I’ll remind him again.”
It was that response that let me know she was in the “handoff business.” Whenever she gets a request, it’s her job to handoff that issue to the person who can fix it. Clearly, once she gives the job to that person, she considers her own job to be done.
Now, I don’t mean to single her out. A large part of managing people involves delegating work, and I really don’t expect her to come replace the light bulbs herself. She has people for that. And I imagine she also might be feeling a little frustrated having told someone to do something (replace the lights, fix the sign) three weeks ago and they haven’t yet gotten around to it. Of course, it would be even more frustrating if that employee told her: “I left so-and-so a message three weeks ago and they haven’t gotten back to me.” That’s handing off handoff business! But the fact remains: The property manager didn’t quite do her job either.
Let’s compare her response to that of Alan Pizzitola. He’s president and the top salesperson at Business Interiors in Birmingham. Alan has sold and installed tons and tons of commercial furniture over the years. He’s legendary in his industry. And he’s most definitely not in the “handoff business.”
Alan has a simple method of following up. If you call him and tell him that a chair he sold you 10 years ago is missing a screw and needs a replacement, he writes that “to-do” on a legal pad. He has a color-coded system that he uses to track the status of each to-do, and that simple screw replacement stays on his legal pad in “fix-it color status” until the screw is replaced.
Alan doesn’t just “handoff” his to-dos like our property manager does. He keeps any and all issues and problems on his own to-do list until they are done. He takes care of business, and that’s a huge part of why his business is so successful.
So what business do you want to be in? The handoff business or the “taking care of business” business? Take a cue from Alan Pizzitola, and maybe you’ll be legendary in your business, too.