I’m back from holidays and overwhelmed by emails. I would normally just crack on with it and not think twice about responding to them. However, the holiday was a useful break in my unconscious patterns. This time I stopped to reflect and investigated the cause of so much mail in what should have been a quiet week.
I noticed a trail of emails in which I was cc’d. I was curious about the motivation of the sender. For some it was a misguided sense of courtesy to keep me in the loop. For others, the sender simply ‘replied all’ without noticing their response was of little or no relevance to me, especially as the subject had changed.
My clients also complain that they don’t have enough time to manage their inboxes. As we explore why they are so frequently cc’d it can sometimes reveal that they have inadvertently created a culture of low trust. If they are perfectionists or micro-manage, their employees have learned to not take risks and make independent decisions.
Sometimes new leaders may not yet feel that they have authority to make changes and they perpetuate the inefficiencies of their predecessors. Worse still if there is a culture of mistrust they cc others to ‘cover their backs’.
What strategies have you adopted to manage your inbox?
If you would like to explore how you:
- manage your time,
- set boundaries,
- say “no” and
- not over extend your responsibility
let’s have a conversation. Comment below, send a note to sylvana@sylvanacaloni.com or call me on +44 (0) 7952 068133.
