If the outcome of an important follow-up isn’t clear, one brief conversation may result in three or four people having three or four very different interpretations of how things were resolved. One person may be of the opinion that the due date has changed. The next person will assume the task owner is someone else. And the third will remember the outcome, but not the action step. For this reason, the meeting may seem very clear when everyone is in the room, but when everyone is back at his or her desk, what was agreed is lost in the shuffle. The follow-up note for a beginner manager is a people-management device, not simply administrative habit or formality. It clarifies for all participants what was decided, who the action owner is, what needs to be done next, and when the action will be revisited.
This holds after feedback discussions, orientation check-in calls, workload conversations, missed deadline conversations, or any meeting where a decision was reached. The follow-up can be a few sentences, in some instances. For example, you should state why the conversation occurred, outline the decision, specify the action item and owner, the due date, and the support that was offered. And if you didn’t make a decision yet but the next follow-up has a date, you should indicate what you intend to look into and confirm that date.
A useful trick to help you write a follow-up is to imagine that a member of your team was to call you after your meeting and ask you, “What did we actually decide?” If they did, you should be able to explain, simply, in a short paragraph, what was discussed. So write a few bullet points or sentences and make them straightforward. For example, don’t say, “We agreed to have better communication between us,” or “We will make sure that everything is aligned going forward.” Instead, you should say, “The team meeting agenda will be updated,” “Sarah will draft the client correspondence and email it to you before EOD Friday,” “I will need your advice before I finalize the client draft.” And it helps you deliver feedback in a follow-up, too.
After you’ve discussed what a person is actually expected to do, what his or her behavior has been, and what the action item is, you want to keep that conversation from escalating into the next stage where it becomes personal in any way. You may record the specific work issue and what the action to address it will be, and what type of support you will offer. This shouldn’t replace your common sense or caring, but it provides a way for you and your people to have a shared memory of the feedback exchange rather than just each of you remembering what you think has happened. And it helps you decide, after all, exactly what to include in the follow-up. It should not summarize the entire exchange. What counts is the “working agreement.” People’s names, specific dates, action items, obstacles, and decisions are important. Comments and emotions and side discussions often don’t contribute to your understanding of next steps.
This should help you decide if it was helpful or not for you to be able to act. What the purpose of the follow-up should be, is not to show that a conversation occurred. Rather, it is to make the action easier to take. Now read it through, once from the point of view of the other person, just before sending your follow-up. Can you see where the task owner and the end result have been identified? Is it clear when the task is due? Does the language come across as calm and neutral and not emotionally charged? You want your follow-up to come across like a good handoff: straightforward, without drama, and without unnecessary detail so that people can pick up and act on it as they are able without having to restart the entire conversation again.