Working closely with coworkers and customers is crucial to the success of the delivery of any product or service. Great service providers identify customer representatives and invite them into the delivery process as much as possible.

Actively engaging customers to gain their insights into what is important to them will improve your deliverables. As you understand more of what they expect, you are better able to meet that expectation.

Any product or service delivery process of modest complexity will require coordination with others. We should promote open communication among team members and attempt to answer team members' questions quickly. Interactions with your team should take precedence over external communications as much as possible.

However, just because something is important to others doesn't mean you should be distracted. For example, a senior executive within your company may come to you with a question. Since you want to impress the executive, you may be tempted to stop your current task and try to address the problem quickly. By talking with the executive and setting an expectation for when the question should be answered, you can avoid an immediate distraction and plan time to focus on the question. With this focus, you have time to deliver a high-quality answer, potentially leading to a better reputation than a quick reply would establish.