Steven Robbins here. Welcome to the Get It Done guys quick and dirty tips to work less and do more.

Do you know how to motivate business partners who are unresponsive?

A coaching client of mine needs to know. A couple of her business partners are, well,

as flaky is a buttered Parisian croissant. As she puts it, they don't call back,

they don't return email, I have to drag them kicking and screaming to get things done.

What should I do? I'm at my wits end. First, calm down. If you know people need to be bugged,

don't get upset. Instead, build it into your schedule. How often do they need bugging? Daily, weekly,

biweekly? Put a five-minute appointment in your calendar to bug them at those times. You can even

set up the appointment to repeat automatically. At the appointed time, call and say, in a cheery

voice, just checking in to make sure everything's on track. Sometimes a gentle reminder is how to motivate people to get back to the task at hand.

Should you call or email?

It depends.

Some people never check voicemail.

Some people get a lot of email and might overlook your message by accident.

Let's get real.

We are all overwhelmed with incoming email, yet we expect everyone

else to reply to our messages instantly. Email gets delayed, spam filtered, and sometimes

outright deleted if someone is trying to get work done. Find out from your partner what works

for them. Ask how best to reach them. Is it phone? Voicemail, email, Facebook mail,

LinkedIn mail, text message, G-Chat, AOL, instant messenger, I message, IRQ, EFG, H-IJK, LNOP.

Find out their preferred method and note it in your address book. Leave your follow-up messages

in the inboxes that people check. I cover this in more detail in my episode on

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