Less Text. More Talk.
BNET Australia Contributors
Aussie Rules
Biography
BNET Australia Contributors
Brian Haverty is editorial director for CBS Interactive Australia and is responsible for the company's BNET and ZDNet Australia sites.
Robert Gerrish is a coach, author and professional speaker and the founder of Flying Solo, an Australian online community for solo business owners.
Melissa Lourenco is the HR manager for CBS Interactive in Australia.
Chris Golis is the author of The Humm Handbook: Lifting Your Level of Emotional Intelligence. He runs seminars and workshops on EQ.
Suzi Dafnis is Community Director of the Australian Businesswomen's Network.
Yvonne Adele helps organisations build a culture of ideas by teaching people at all levels to access their untapped creative thinking skills.
I realise it’s a bit rich for me to talk about over-emailing, given that I send out around 60,000 each and every month through our Flying Solo ezine, but that’s precisely what I’m about to do.
What I see all too often is a failure to effectively develop relationships through an avoidance of verbal conversation. And we all know what’s causing this: yep, a strong preference towards electronic communication.
Don’t get me wrong. Email is wonderful. I cannot imagine operating in business without it. The trouble is, it’s the very immediacy and simplicity of email that is its potential downfall. Well in the world of relationship building at any rate.
Just imagine if email were taken away from you. What would you do? Would you type 20, 30, 40 letters a day? Fold them, pop them in envelopes and trundle up to the letterbox? Not a chance.
You’d pick up the phone and make conversation. Conversation, dialogue as opposed to monologue, builds relationships and it builds them well.
I’m not suggesting we all stop sending emails. What I do recommend though is that we pause for a second before hitting “reply” and consider whether picking up the phone may just be a better move.
Successful businesses respect and acknowledge key relationships and make full use of all forms of communication. Let’s make sure we all do the same.
What say you? Leave a comment. Er, don’t call just at the minute.
