Always check your message has been received.

Last week I was involved in a rather tricky situation, where a group of children were delayed returning home from a late night performance. There were 2 messages that were not received and this resulted in the coach the children were on being delayed; the children being very tired and distressed and worried parents waiting for the coach to return.

One of these messages involved an individual 'TEXTING' a message to the person in charge. The other involved an individual leaving a 'Voice Mail' to say she was travelling independently. In both cases, these individuals believed their responsibilities had stopped once they had left these messages. However, the person's phone that they'd left the messages on wasn't working. These were important enough messages, which affected a number of adults and children, yet they didn't check whether or not they had been received. They also did not tell the person in charge in person, but relied on impersonal messages.

Before we had mobiles (and I don't mean the 1980s bricks), we ensured messages were passed on; we confirmed they had been received. Now, it appears, for some people, that leaving a message or texting is 'good enough' without them checking a message has been received.

The message today is: check the right person has received your message; if necessary asking them to phone/text to confirm, or - even more impressively, tell the person face to face.

Executive Voice is running a half day Masterclass Speak, Connect, Engage on 7th July in Central London.