CONFIRMATIONS

Check, double-check, and triple-check with the people you are working with to make sure they are in sync with your expectations, and that you are in sync with theirs. Keep in mind that people change functions and positions, and even leave the company. Depending on the lead time—the time between scheduling your presentation and your presentation’s delivery—the people handling certain tasks and responsibilities may have moved to different departments and their replacements may not be up to speed on details such as your presentation. They may not yet realize that a ball is about to be dropped—they may not even realize there’s a ball at all!

This may be the person who is supposed to have scheduled the room to be set up, or who would normally handle the handouts. You may be sending a file to someone who has left the company. And procedures often change—maybe the administrative assistant no longer makes copies, now there’s a copy department to handle such tasks. The person handling your invoices, travel vouchers, and other financial details could have left the company and somehow your account didn’t get assigned to anyone else. People tend to keep track of little details in their heads, which doesn’t bode well when someone else has to step in or take over.