Vince Lombardi, the all-time great football coach of the Green Bay Packers, epitomized preparation and hard work.  He also operated on “Lombardi Time”, the principle that you should show up to a meeting, prepared, at least 10-15 minutes early.  His winning record speaks to the success of his time management.  Alas, Lombardi Time seems to be foreign to many of my coworkers, and they demonstrate their ignorance of this principle far too often.

“The individual who is habitually tardy in meeting and appointment, will never be respected or successful in life” - Rev. Willbur Fisk

Early this week, I was in two separate meetings where the start time was treated as a loose guideline.  In one meeting, one late comer literally stood on a chair and turned the clock back to joke that he was early.  Everyone laughed, except the guy running the meeting.  In the second meeting, another late arrival disrupted the meeting by slamming the door shut, stepping on another person’s foot, and grunting his way out of his coat.  I’m sure that Miss Manners would have been horrified.  I know that Jake would have been fuming.

“He was always late on principle, his principle being that punctuality is the thief of time.” - Oscar Wilde

Jake, you ask? Jake was a big shot in the first company that I worked for.  Jake also operated on Lombardi Time, which is where I first heard the expression.  Jake expected all of his managers to be on time for his monthly staff meeting.  I pity the fool who arrived late for Jake.  See, Jake wouldn’t tolerate any Johnny-come-latelies who barged in and disrupted the proceedings.  Jake was an old-school hardass.  His remedy was locking the door at the scheduled start time, and then taking attendance! If your name didn’t show up on the attendance list, you were in for an ass-whoopin’.  Needless to say, you were only late for Jake’s meeting once.  The second lateness was your ticket out the door.

“The trouble with being punctual is that nobody’s there to appreciate it.” - Franklin P. Jones

I’m not saying you should show up for every meeting 15 minutes early.  The cost of the time spent waiting for meetings to start over the course of a year would be staggering.  I’m just saying that you should show up early.  Let’s say two minutes early.  That gives you enough time to pick out a choice seat and spread out your materials.  Oh, yeah, and when your Outlook calendar reminder pops up 15 minutes before the meeting, this is not the time to start printing out the attachments for the meeting.  If you follow my end-of-the-day system, the attachments should already be sitting on your desk when you walk in (you’ll have printed them the night before).  If you are late, try to be a little less conspicuous.  You’ll be a less disruptive force.  And Jesus, don’t step on my feet!

I used to be arrogant, and felt that my time was more important than anyone else’s.  Running a few of your own meetings makes you appreciate the punctual people.  I’m not perfect; I’ll still occasionally find myself racing toward the closing door of a meeting.  But I’m working on improving my on-time performance, especially after reading this quote:

Punctuality is the stern virtue of men of business, and the graceful courtesy of princes. ~ Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

Here’s some good reading from the coach:

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