The Conversation
Every interaction with another person has a conversation around it, and over the last couple of days this has really presented itself to me. What I am talking about is communication.
The world is full of adages around taking care of what you wish for, and this also came front and center this week.
If you want a little darker, to quote philosopher Nietzsche “He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby becomes a monster”. Yep, I am mindful that as we grow, ‘we’ as a business and ‘I’ as a person could fall into the danger of becoming an unfeeling corporation. I don’t want this to happen.
I had the pleasure of sitting with a colleague this week and listened to her share how her managing director took his sweet time in responding to an email from her. She was upset and it had affected her business. She ended up acting without his response because she needed to, and when the response finally came back his ideas were different, and consequently she would be disadvantaged.
I can tell you though, I was not feeling smug.
Because this week I have been slow in responding to a couple of important threads.
We are getting used to ‘shitty communication’ though, right? If you email the bank, the CRM help desk, IRD, Trademe Support, you are expecting a 2-3 day response time, maybe more. By the time they get back to you you’ve found the answer or moved on. Your account manager is always on holiday and the backup person is probably in a conference.
I will be honest though, I thought some of my inbound messages were returned within 24 hours. But it had been over 48 in one case and longer in another. That’s because my days are vanishing in a blink right now but it’s still no excuse. The buck stops here, and there are ways to ensure that all communication is dealt with. I just have not yet put the systems in place properly.
Continuing ‘The Conversation’ at an appropriate pace, (all the while managing boundaries) is the challenge for me. It was easy when we had 2 salespeople. Now we have close to 40, and add to that we are busier than we have been.
Putting myself in someone else’s shoes and thinking about how they must be feeling when they are waiting for a response from me really got me thinking. Hearing about the challenges faced by my colleague in another business was the neon sign flashing by the roadside.
So where am I going with all of this? It’s a personal commitment and a self-management push to do just a little better. To get a system in place, and to politely and efficiently get back to people in a timely manner.
Feel free to keep me honest should I fail on this one.
Welcome this week to Kelly McKee. Kelly is joining us in the Eastern Bay of Plenty area, after recently locating to the area to be near family. With extensive qualifications including Full License accreditation and AREINZ status, Kelly is leveraging almost a decade of industry knowledge and numerous performance awards to meet the challenge of establishing in her new location.
Super focused and ambitious, I wish Kelly well, and I won’t be surprised to see some serious listing, and some team building going on for her in no time.
