Digital Leadership
One myth that has arisen from the pandemic is that everyone is available to respond to emails. Professionals across all sectors have bemoaned the increase in digital communications. Top executives have long battled email fatigue with boutique mobile apps such as Superhuman. While most professionals unaware of such applications or unable to pay the hefty $30-a-month subscription are left to wrangle their inboxes to identify which communications are important.
This challenge has only increased over the last eight months, yet there is an opportunity for a winter refresh. The upcoming holiday season creates a socially accepted refrain from heavy email communications. The break in rhythm also provides an opportunity to reset expectations for you and your colleagues.
Creating a Criterion for Email
It has long been accepted that certain conditions are met before a colleague steps inside another’s office or reaches out via phone. In my years of working in offices, certain criteria helped to decide whether potentially interrupting the workflow was necessary.
The first criterion is time. Was there already a scheduled time for me to ask the question? Was waiting until the next day most appropriate because the workday was ending shortly?
The second criterion is responsibility. Had I already taken the appropriate steps and reviewed relevant documents to reconcile the question or concern before engaging colleagues, especially superiors?
The last criterion is urgency. Could the question wait until I casually strolled by a colleague’s desk during a noticeable down moment?
Leadership In All Areas
Leadership is often visualized as a person standing in front of a captivated room; yet, true leadership is more dynamic. One aspect of leading is making the pathway to less stress and greater clarity visible. Leaders who understand this have already communicated new expectations for defining success, including the role of daily activities such as email, to colleagues. For leaders who have not communicated new expectations, the winter holiday break is an opportunity to make the following changes:
Time: In the pandemic work-world, regularly scheduled meetings have become happenstance and ending work times have become a blur. Leaders can shift this by having a weekly coffee hour meeting that is solely focused on communicating and reinforcing expectations. When receiving emails that are best resolved during the coffee hour, leaders can send an email response indicating that the question should be held for the weekly coffee hour. Consistent messaging will support employee evaluation of whether or not a question should be sent by email.
Leaders can also refrain from sending emails over the weekend. Instead, leaders can model using email scheduling features so that important emails drafted over the weekend are not sent until Monday morning. This shift will encourage employees to maintain time away from email.
Responsibility: The shift to working online may have created short-term confusion about roles and responsibilities. Crafting an organizational chart with clarity on roles and responsibilities specific to the current work context will help to decrease the number of emails required to resolve an issue. Leaders can ask employees to consult the organizational chart and redirect emails.
Urgency: As work occurs from personal homes, the casual encounter is less likely but not impossible. Leaders can require that each employee hold weekly office hours wherein colleagues know that contact through video conferencing or phone during this time will not be an interruption. Returning to interpersonal communications will not only reduce email, but it can also decrease feelings of isolation.
Leader of One
Whether or not you are a leader of an organization, every person has spaces of leadership. The first space is leading ourselves. While having the approval of a supervisor makes engaging the criterion easier, implementing the steps can shift how you respond to and send email. Over time your self-leadership may become a model for colleagues and management.
