What is better: to be on time and incapable or to be late and capable? It is really a chicken or the egg scenario in that neither is ideal. To a degree, someone who is reliable is more valuable than someone who is unreliable, regardless of ability. The reason is fairly simple; you can only train someone to improve if they are there in the first place.
The strength of any S&C department is based on the simple premise that we are where we are supposed to be when we are supposed to be there. We work around others’ schedules – early mornings, late nights, in between classes, or on breaks. It is not inherently known, but these are stressors to the person we are asking to train. There is a fragile trust that can fracture simply from not being at the right place at the right time.
It is the ultimate form of respect to be on time. It is also symbolic of the follow through one will take in regards to delivering what is asked of them. It is impossible to predict how hard someone will work or how meticulous they will be with details. However, the odds of anything happening as planned are much higher if someone is on time. It works both ways. It is just as true for the participant as it is for the administrator.
The greatest ability, therefore, becomes availability. In some regards, the most important thing to consider is that training someone to do something is based on the construct that the person who is supposed to be on time is capable of it in the first place. It only matters if someone is on time if they have the potential to be impactful. If someone is ineffective in their job, in reality, being on time becomes irrelevant.
The goal of this is not to speak in circles and not say anything in the first place. We have to look at whether there are a lot of people who want to do S&C and make a career out of it. As with any profession, the professional aspect of the job is the most important. Professionalism obviously comes down to elements of character, for example, reliability. It is the differentiating factor behind the people who want to do this and who need to do this. A person who is not really committed to the profession will weed themselves out eventually based on their inability to simply be on time.
The ultimate litmus for an intern or volunteer is the ability to be on time multiple times. One is a mistake, two is a problem, and three times is time to find a new profession. The goal of any internship is to learn the skills to be a professional in that particular field. It is also important to effectively decide if you want to continue with the profession. It is not realistic to expect every 4am wake up call to be this life-changing experience. But it is important to have a job where you prioritize factors in your life to accommodate that.
Is that not what we are talking about here? It is the priorities of the person that determines their value to their said profession. A person prioritizing being on time and doing a good job says they are doing the job they want to do. Priorities are the actions that represent your desire to do something. If someone does not want to wake up early, they will stay up late. If someone waits until the last minute to leave their house before work, they do not want to go to work.
Being on time is a simple but important aspect of being successful. It speaks volumes towards the willingness to follow through with the aspects of the job that are prerequisites for success. Being late by default means something else entirely; you may be in the wrong profession. Evaluating what someone wants to do is not through what someone says but what they do. The follow through is most important and brings us back to the idea that the greatest ability is availability.