Respond to Succeed

Take a nice bouncy ball and drop it. Watch as it rises back into your outstretched hand responding effortlessly to your energy. The experience is satisfying. You want to do it again and again. Try the same thing with a house brick! Listen as it thuds to the floor.  Bend down and pick it up. Drop it again and retrieve it.  Not much fun eh?  No wonder balls and not bricks are the mainstay of most fun and games. Email communication can be like bouncing balls or dropping house bricks.  Some people keep up the momentum and return your energy with ease by replying promptly and efficiently.  On the other hand many let their emails pile up in their in tray until they have enough bricks to make a good sized wall. They then become isolated behind this wall of apparent if unintentional indifference. 

I tackled a colleague about this recently and he was genuinely surprised to discover how this behaviour dramatically impacted his efficiency both perceived and actual.  OK people who are ruled by their email clearly need to get a life, but in business those who respond more succeed more.  How many emails are there in your ‘inbox’ right now?  If it is over 20 then maybe it is time for a spring clean and a resolution to adopt a ‘handle mails once’ policy.  An unreasonable expectation or plain common sense – let me know.