I totally agree with my friend and colleague, Leanne Hoagland-Smith, in her article. So many business "professionals" seem to forget common courtesy!
People in business are crazy busy today probably more than ever before. Technology now has these individuals connected to what seems like 24/7 work week and many may believe they are in roles of doctors responding to a continual stream of emergencies. Then factor in less people being asked to do more work because of the slowing economy to poor performance reviews and you end up with some serious self-management issues.
When I think about crazy busy people, the image of the frantic white rabbit from "Alice in Wonderland" comes to mind running around screaming "I'm late, I'm late for a very important date." Sometimes in business we all may feel like that rabbit. However, this feeling does not excuse unprofessional behavior.
Maybe you are like me and have arrived at an appointment and the other person was a no-show. I have had this happen not only with colleagues, potential clients (a.k.a. prospects) and actual clients. Now, from my perspective this is much worse than not returning a phone call or responding to an e-mail because professionalism and specifically values are in the cross hairs. Recently I actually had one coaching client tell his boss that "things happen" when he missed a confirmed coaching call. Needless to say, the boss removed him from the executive coaching because of his demonstrated lack of commitment, professionalism and ethics.
No shows truly lack positive core values. When two people agree to come together be it face to face or over the telephone, then an implied contract has been made. Honoring that contract demonstrates both your professionalism and positive core values.
In some cases, there are foul-ups where dates were confused or even where technology had a burp. Then it even becomes more essential to respond quickly to any phone calls or emails associated with missed meetings so that your professionalism and values are not tainted.
Additionally this type of behavior is communicating a subtle non-verbal message. That communication is my time (the person who failed to make the appointment) is more valuable than your time (the person who made the appointment and is waiting for the other person). Again, I do not know about you, but I believe my time is just an important as everyone else's and missed meetings as a small business owner cost me productivity and potential sales.
With all of my clients, one of the key issues that we discuss is professionalism and the demonstrated behaviors. This discussion is usually connected to having a formal written positive core values statement that is proactively communicated to all stakeholders.
Some say that business ethics is an oxymoron and I truly do not believe that to be true. However, after being in business for over 10 years, I believe what is true is that there appear to be more individuals in business who lack personal core values because their egos have them believing they are more important than those with whom they interact. For it is the ego that keeps the hand from picking up the phone and saying "It was my fault for missing the meeting."