This past Tuesday I was working with a client who was just promoted to a senior C-suite role in a worldwide organization.

Among the topics we discussed was that the woman she was replacing was very well known, very established, while she didn’t feel quite “cooked” yet… did I have any recommendations for hastening her bake?

I did.

Among them that she needed to get clarity on her non-negotiables: those things without which she and her team would fall flat.

Could I give her some examples?

I could—and did—and thought it might be fun to send along to you the “ingredient” list that is fundamental to the success of, and success within, Cole Media Management:

1. If you’re on time, you’re late. 15 minutes early is heaven. 5 minutes early is mandatory.

Do things happen? You bet, which leads us to number two:

2. Ensure communication flows: Not only does this mean my team and I are highly responsive, it means I need them to know (and keep a file so others can know) how clients want to be communicated with: Do they prefer text? Telephone? Email? A situation-dependent mixture? Which leads me to:

3. There are no crises or problems—only situations or dilemmas. Let’s face it, when something goes wrong in our country, our leaders do not go to the crisis room. They go to the situation room. So do we. I do not ever want to see an email subject line that says, ‘CRISIS’. Speaking of bad news,

4. We are in touch with good news, bad news and no news. As you can imagine, it’s pretty easy to be in touch with good news, and most of us know to get in front of bad news. Here at CMM, we are also in touch with no news. What does that look like? Well, if you asked us to find out something for you and we said we would be in touch by the end of the day but the end of the day has come and we have no answer, we send you a note saying we are still working on it. That’s no news.

Finally,

5. Cheap is expensive and expensive is cheap. This goes for everything from buying the top-of-the-line printer because otherwise we are just going to have to buy another one next year (and the year after that…) to not being cheap with ideas, praise and/or information. Why withhold? Who gains? Nobody.

I hope the above gave you some ideas for your “ ingredient” list—should you not have one—or offered you one or two ideas that—if added to your current bake—would take you to the next level.

Want a few more ideas? Take a look at “The Top 10 Qualities of a Successful Candidate”