Latest Headlines

Integrity & Awareness by Paul Burnstein

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Responding Whether Positive or Negative

The year is starting out quickly with looking at deals for debt financing. I have worked with people in the past who do not feel it is important to return phone calls in a timely manner or even at all. These people feel that if they are interested in working with you, they will call you back, but otherwise they will not.

I strongly believe in courtesy calls and if I cannot help someone fund a deal, I will let them know that. I am always happy to look at any deal that someone sends me; as I wrote, if I can help connect them to funding, great, I will let them know...if I cannot help connect them to funding, too bad, but I will still let them know.

For me, it is important to close out a project and know when it is dead or funded, without having to chase down other people.

The awareness for today is to think about how you would like to be treated by others and ensure that you offer that same amount of respect; if you want to be sure that people respond to you, make sure and respond to others.
~Paul

1 comment:

Jennie said...

This is a great awareness, Paul. I am certainly guilty of not calling back in a timely manner, or at all. My department was in the process of hiring a new staff member 2 weeks before the organization closed for the holidays. I got called for jury duty and was out of the office the entire week the interviews were held. The search committee proceeded without me and forwarded me information for the finalist they selected. As the supervisor for the position, I wanted to do a follow-up second interview with the finalist before making a hiring decision. I wasn't able do do that until right before we closed for the break. As a result, the other interview candidates didn't get calls informing them they were not hired until 2 weeks later when we re-opened. I felt bad that I didn't get to make those calls before break, but I was surprised the non-selected applicants were happy that they at least got a call, even if it was weeks after they interviewed, so they could have closure on the issue.