Anyone who is in a leadership position for any period of time know there are some essentials that cannot be violated. One of those is communication. Whether you are communicating about vision or about an event you have to communicate it in as many ways as you can. But this post is about the modes of communication.
If you have email, voicemail, answering machines, facebook, twitter, etc., than you have a responsibility to communicate through those modes. If someone communicates with you through one or all of these tools than you have a responsibility as a leader to get back to that person as soon as you can. If you find that you don't check your email much or that you don't really use your voicemail and remember to check for messages once a month, you might want to consider canceling those services.
There is nothing worse that to send someone information or a question and they don't get back to you for a while or never. Think about this for a moment. If someone spent the time and energy to try to get a hold of you through one of these tools, you honor them by replying to them as soon as you can. If they ask a question you don't have an answer for yet, acknowlege they sent you a message and tell them you will get back to them when you have the answer. You show people you care when you do that. Otherwise they get the impression that you don't care.
When it comes to communication you cannot over communicate. Let's put it this way, the more you communicate the more people will be on board with you. What people are not up on they are down on. For whaterever reason, when people don't have all the facts they have a default mode, oppose. So keep everyone up-to-date and they will most likely be behind you.
So when it comes to all the modes of communication, be sure to treat people with respect and get back to them as soon as you can. If you have email and don't really use it, cancel it and don't give out your address. If you don't like returning messages from your answering machine, then turn it off. Show people you respect them by returning their calls. This is leadership 101. It is a character issue.
In what ways do you show people you care that I haven't mentioned?
If you have email, voicemail, answering machines, facebook, twitter, etc., than you have a responsibility to communicate through those modes. If someone communicates with you through one or all of these tools than you have a responsibility as a leader to get back to that person as soon as you can. If you find that you don't check your email much or that you don't really use your voicemail and remember to check for messages once a month, you might want to consider canceling those services.
There is nothing worse that to send someone information or a question and they don't get back to you for a while or never. Think about this for a moment. If someone spent the time and energy to try to get a hold of you through one of these tools, you honor them by replying to them as soon as you can. If they ask a question you don't have an answer for yet, acknowlege they sent you a message and tell them you will get back to them when you have the answer. You show people you care when you do that. Otherwise they get the impression that you don't care.
When it comes to communication you cannot over communicate. Let's put it this way, the more you communicate the more people will be on board with you. What people are not up on they are down on. For whaterever reason, when people don't have all the facts they have a default mode, oppose. So keep everyone up-to-date and they will most likely be behind you.
So when it comes to all the modes of communication, be sure to treat people with respect and get back to them as soon as you can. If you have email and don't really use it, cancel it and don't give out your address. If you don't like returning messages from your answering machine, then turn it off. Show people you respect them by returning their calls. This is leadership 101. It is a character issue.
In what ways do you show people you care that I haven't mentioned?
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