I believe that to be an effective communicator, establish contacts and maintain relationships, one must not forget about the basics of communication etiquette, an art which, unfortunately, our generation has let slide way too far down the list of priorities. Most of these skills are pure common sense and follow a sort of golden-rule mentality. For example, the act of returning phone calls. I’m not sure if the text-message take-over is to blame or just plain disregard for others’ time and energy, but getting people on the phone these days is almost impossible. Obviously, everyone is busy; everyone has a million tasks on their plate, but the last time I checked, it’s not terribly difficult to find five minutes out of a day to call someone back if they have called and left a message, especially if it’s an inquiry of some sort. This past week, I tried to contact three different individuals by phone several times regarding a semi-urgent matter, leaving voicemails for each. Not one response. Not one! This is
a) not how you maintain relationships,
b) not how you establish effective professional connections, and
c) not how you keep up a noteworthy reputation.
Thoughts?
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2 comments:
I completely agree with your thoughts on etiquitte. When someone takes the time to call you, common courtesy would tell you to give that person some consideration and a return call. I think it is also imperative to stress the importance of returning calls in a timely manner. When people wait three days to return a phone call, they might as well not return the call, because if it was a question you probably already got the answer and most likely what was going on three days ago is not going on in the present.
P.S. great topic....HUGE pet peeve of mine!
I get it. Believe me. Each summer I've got to get 50 students to reply to my emails. Many act as if it's an option. Maybe it's a curse of the information glut.
Good topic.
--Prof. Flournoy
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