Being a magician in business can be a great trait!
You can mysteriously make things work and get stuff done as if by sleight of hand. But when you go offline, become unresponsive and simply don’t respond at all, it leaves your colleagues, clients and co-workers wondering if you’ve disappeared.
Technology helps, and it doesn’t
Email is a great tool. It’s quick and current. It’s a record of conversations. It can be done at any time, and can be edited before sending. It can be preferred over texting in business, mostly because it's more thoughtful and thorough. Texts feel more intrusive, it’s not as easy to keep track of conversations, there’s little wordsmith involved. For quick or highly timely communications, it works well. But nowadays, to some, email feels like an old slog, texting is in and phone calls are pretty much out. All this is to say - the trend is to respond fast, but also when you feel like it. And especially with email, there doesn’t seem to be much demand to hit reply right away, if at all (which starts to feel like ghosting, the utmost in disrespect).
Hello is anyone there!?
In the old days (really, not that long ago), if a client or colleague called, you’d likely return the call right away. Then emails came along and it was a similar story. If it took more than a day, the response usually started with “Sorry for the delay….” - as if past 24 hours was slow! That’s really shifting. A few days can now pass, unless it’s super urgent. A few weeks? Yup, that happens. Unresponsiveness is becoming a thing. Is it laziness? Lack of caring? Too many other demands? You’re truly waiting to find the answer first? A power trip? Fear? It is possible your note was never received, it can happen - check-in if you want to make sure. It’s hard to say what's going on these days, maybe a combination of all of the above. Unfortunately, for anyone waiting for a reply, it mostly just feels rude. (Personal emergencies excepted.)
Cover those bases
If email or phone calls are really just not the way you roll, or you simply work better via text - let people know that. If you alert them that, in a few cases, you’re much easier to reach via text and you’d like to request that’s the first level of communication, at least you’ve let them know you’re ready to correspond. Sometimes folks ask to receive a text first alerting them there’s an email in their inbox or a voice message was left. This actually works pretty well. Next step: respond!
Don’t wait, communicate
Sometimes we can have an intuitive sense about communicating in business. We’re waiting for the right answer before we get back. We’re checking schedules first. We’re completing the design. We just need more info or time before we reply. Time passes…days pass, even weeks (and sometimes never). But consider this: the almighty interim message. It’s like magic glue! “I got your note and I’m working on it.” “Confirming I saw your question, it’s in my queue.” You get the picture. Let them know you’re not ignoring them and that you do care. Many things can get in the way of a response…but in today’s super fast post/text world, there doesn’t seem to be much reason why. A little “I got you” message can go a long way.
(published 2023)
