We’re decreasingly using phones—many people don’t even have landlines—and when we do it’s often mobile phones and PDAs for texting and emailing. Who doesn’t love the convenience of emailing several people at once or avoiding a lengthy conversation? While I’m all for efficiency, I know there are times we put our relationships, and credibility, at risk when we choose email instead of the phone.
Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home is two parts Emily Post and one part survival handbook, truly a great guide to emailing in the modern world. Authors David Shipley and Will Schwalbe, provide seven instances (and I argue that list could be longer) when the phone is preferable to email.
- When you need to convey or discern emotion.
- When you need to cut through the communication forest. Remember that meeting that had already taken up sixty-seven emails? In three phone calls, it’s all set. (Date, time, location, roster of participants, who’s having what for lunch.)
- When you need to move fast. (Yes, it’s true—even with cell phones, you can have trouble finding someone, or you can get stuck in voicemail. Still, the phone is faster and more reliable than anything else. When you’ve actually found someone, you know it.)
- When you want a remote communication to be private.
- When you need to reach someone who doesn’t check their email.
- When you want people to be able immediately to engage and respond. The fact that we can talk at the same time and interrupt each other means that we can communicate the way we do in person. The phone allows our words and ideas to overlap, mingle, and amplify one another. Instant messaging and texting mimic this—but it’s not the same.
- When you need to send a harsh email, you can soften the blow (or distance yourself from it) by calling first with advance warning. (”I just wanted you to know that I’m going to be sending you a formal email letting you know that your bid wasn’t successful. I value our relationship and hope that we can speak tomorrow, after you’ve read it.”)
The next time you find yourself scrolling toward Send, ask yourself if the benefits of voice-to-voice don’t outweigh the ease of email … then reach for the dial pad.
At a recent lunch with corporate learning & development leaders in the Philadelphia area, I was struck by how the conversation kept coming round to, well, conversation. For example, those dealing with an aging workforce found that the necessary succession planning discussions were just not happening. The challenge in this case was to arm senior managers with the means for conversation that transfers knowledge and coordinates new action.
To a large extent, leaders and managers today are paid to talk–and we believe that modern corporations are largely “networks of conversation.” So, it stands to reason that conversation is the primary vehicle for getting things done. Then, why don’t we take the time to get better at it?
A common myth says that as budgets go through ever greater scrutiny, the bulk of L&D investment will be focused on job specific, technical training. Granted, there will always be some need for this. But as the L&D leaders gathered at our lunch clearly testified, a shift is abreast–a shift in spending from traditional training programs which seldom work (see David Maister’s “Why (Most) Training is Useless”) –towards programs that build conversational and relational effectiveness.
It’s year-end which means more than just the annual quest for the perfect tree and crawling lines at the post office. Performance reviews–that affect raises and bonuses–are also part of the season. The Career Journal (registration may be required) gives six tips for ways to best prepare for your review. Keep these tips in mind and there may be something extra in your stocking.
Companies look for certain qualities for job promotion and a recent Wall Street Journal article (registration may be required) explains how living abroad helps clear that path. It’s presumed that those with international experience are curious, risk-taking, and adaptable people, who undoubtedly add value to any organization. Well, those are the same qualities necessary for effective communication.
When we build new business relationships, we do so by exploring new territory, which shows our curiosity about people. When we undertake projects in unfamiliar industries, we’re tapping our reservoir of wisdom, which dovetails with our ability to take calculated risks. And when we’re successful at nurturing these relationships and producing results, we’ve done that by “living” their culture, which demonstrates our adaptability.
So, learning to leverage curiosity, adaptability, and risk-taking – whether or not you travel – can make you promotable. Plus, as the WSJ article also points out, people can always enhance their credentials in other ways, such as managing a project in another a country while still based Stateside.
“Regular employment” may be dying, making temporary labor a strategic concern. The world is getting “talent constrained” (India and China especially), and, as a result, labor arbitrage may be the wave of the past.
For a provocative view of the future of the global workplace, see a very interesting interview with Jeff Joerres, president and CEO of Manpower, recently published in the online edition of The McKinsey Quarterly.
