Published July 2001

Don’t let stream of communication drown you

Q. As the manager of a growing and dynamic work group, I find that I am overloaded with requests for guidance, decisions and analysis along with the routine monthly and quarterly reports to upper management. My communications basket constantly is filled with a flood of e-mails, memos, reports and meeting requests that I cannot respond to in a timely manner. What steps can I take to better manage my communications overload?

A. The essence of managing is communication. If a 1998 study showing that the average corporate employee deals with 178 messages and documents a day was accurate, it may not be unreasonable to double the figure for most managers.

The solution is take control of your communications as an integral strategy of how you manage your employees.

Several intriguing suggestions from the June 2001 edition of the “Harvard Management Communication Letter” may offer excellent guidance:

Increase your personal communications. While that may sound paradoxical, being the initiator of communications to your staff and customers should gradually decrease the requests for your input that you describe above. People generally have fewer questions or require direction if they are fully informed about processes that are important to them. Attend meetings only when your specific ideas or analysis is required; if meeting attendance is more a political advantage to you, find your own political way to avoid them. Time, not standing, is your most important need.

Keep all employees informed. When facing a decision as a project moves toward completion, send short updates to all staff members, interested departments and other executives. Do not limit these updates to a select “need-to-know” address list. Those “not-in-the-know” will feel slighted if they learn of developments from someone other than you.

Encourage questions from employees. You may receive added insight to the process. However, if you promise staff more information as it becomes available, this may limit questions since people may assume your future updates will answer them.

Empower staff to communicate with customers. Limit your involvement with customers to only those with the most difficult and important problems that otherwise can’t be resolved by employees. Put staff in charge of customer relations. In addition to these broad suggestions, here are some basic steps I have found useful to streamlining communication strategy:

Respond in kind. Respond the same way you received an information request, unless instructed otherwise. E-mail receives an electronic reply. A fax, a return fax. Telephone message, the same. One exception: responding in person is never inappropriate.

Limit e-mail messages to one screen in length, that way, recipients won’t have to scroll down to get all you’ve said. Use bullets, underlining and bold face to emphasize important points.

Establish an “ANN” policy. Label appropriate communications “ANN,” for “answer not necessary” and encourage your staff to do likewise.

Also limit voice-mail responses to 45 seconds or less. On long replies, speak slowly so the recipient can take notes.

Treat any written communication — fax, e-mail, memorandum — as a formal business letter. Ensure that spelling and grammar are impeccable. That said, keep your syntax fresh, alive, spirited and fun.

Eric Zoeckler operates The Scribe, a business-writing service. He also writes “Taming the Workplace,” a column appearing Mondays in The Herald. He can be reached at 206-284-9566 or by sending e-mail to mrscribe@aol.com.

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