Pick Up The Phone!Our Swindon business advice column with Gail Gibson"I get so many emails
everyday and there’s no time to speak, let alone reply to them all."
Isn’t there?
Agreed, when you open your email each day you are bombarded
by an ever-increasing inbox. To best manage your time you organise your emails
into urgent, can wait and over coffee – of course!
You instinctively settle
into the routine of replying to the urgent ones even if the meaning puzzles
you. By this I mean – do you really understand what the person is saying to
you?
Think of the last time you received an email that didn’t
read quite right or you thought more in-depth about how you would reply. What
did you do? Did you blindly respond in haste, maybe having misunderstood the
meaning of the message, or did you simply reply in short instead of finding out
more? Much of the time we make the excuse that it’s easier and quicker to reply
by email. Is it though?
Is it time to turn your next email response into a positive
benefit? Why not pick up the phone rather than playing email ping-pong? Perhaps
you working on a proposal with a colleague and you receive an email about some
of the content you have shared. Instead of pinging emails back and forth, pick
up the phone and call your colleague. Why? Because I guarantee that you will
get so much more from actually having a conversation.
So what are the pluses of having a conversation?
During your
conversation you can explore the opportunity, to listen to and respond with
ideas, which can enable you both to go away and create an even better proposal
to deliver the client with the best solution. A conversation will allow you to
realise how much more value you (together) can add by digging deeper with
questions during your dialogue. A great result!
Remember that you can all too easily misconstrue an email. Sometimes an email does not even contain the correct information. If in doubt,
and rather than replying in an emotional state of mind, take a moment to
consider how much more information or meaning you need. Make time to pick up
the phone and talk to your colleague, client or prospective connection.
Your
time will be wisely spent as you will give yourself the chance to explore and
discover so much more.
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