Love Your Colleagues Thirty Minutes A Week
Everyday, we are inundated with e-mails. I personally get over 300 a day, and other colleagues I’ve heard get 500. Despite many of the e-mails being largely irrelevant, or impersonal given the blast distribution trend, it’s worth responding every once in a while with a “Thank You” and a recognition of what they’ve sent.
Someone spent the time writing up an e-mail and sending it, and most of the time they just want someone to respond and recognize their work. How many times have you proceeded to review your e-mail AFTER you sent it, just so you can relish in what you’ve said? Their intentions are generally good. Yesterday, I spent about 30 minutes consciously responding to about 15 e-mails which I normally wouldn’t have responded to, and it felt good.
50% of your work success is selling yourself internally, and the other 50% is selling yourself to your clients, if you have any. If you aren’t client facing, then clearly your internal selling percentage goes up. The whole idea of responding to many of your internal e-mails is to make the other end feel recognized. A lot of times colleagues will send out blast e-mails touting their own success. Instead of up-heaving in disgust, shoot a quick “Congrats and good work!” response to make them feel special. After all, those who toot their own horn in this manner are generally insecure.
In large corporate organizations, reputations, good or bad spread fast. You want to build a big enough positive network over the course of your career. With your big contingent of positive backers, promotions and raises come easier. Large corporations thrive on consensus building, and you must constantly build your personal brand.
Have you ever wondered what’s the matter with that guy who’s had 5 different jobs in 7 years in the same industry? It’s because he’s good at selling himself at the gates (interview), but he’s unable to develop the support network necessary to keep him stably employed and rising within the organization. He may say he’s jumping for opportunities, but we know better after the third job hop, he’s the problem and not the employer. I’m always wary of someone who doesn’t commit at least 2 years at one organization, and so should you.
If you spend just 30 minutes of conscious effort every week reaching out to internal colleagues, you’ll have spent 26 hours of painless time over the year developing relationships. Responding to e-mails is the easiest way to go, but if you can go one step further and give that relative stranger a ring, that works too. This goodwill adds up, and pretty soon, you’ll have reached out to everybody, and everybody will be saying nice and thoughtful things about you. So before you mass deleted your e-mails again, pick 5-10 you’ve never responded to before and thank them for their information!
Readers, I’m interesting in knowing how many e-mails you guys get a day, and how you deal with the inflow? Do you keep an empty inbox and read/sort everything? Or do you keep your inbox quite full, and leave the irrelevant e-mails unread?
Also, do you have reservations about job hoppers? Or do you think the days of being a loyal soldier are over?
Best,
RB
Financial Samurai – “Slicing Through Money’s Mysteries”
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Hey RB! I actually think this is great advice. To just take some time out of your day to say ‘thank you’ goes far. As an employee in my previous life, all I wanted to do was get some recognition from my boss. If he ever sent me a thank you email, I would read it again and again, and file it away in my personal folder. The recognition and thank you is like the super catalyst that kept me going, more so than money often times.
We’re in a day and age where all we do is e-mail and send other electronic stuff. This is why writing hand-written thank you notes is so important and impactful.
Keep up the good tips RB!
RSC
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“Also, do you have reservations about job hoppers? Or do you think the days of being a loyal soldier are over?”
Depends. I’m a young guy, and there is one company have my eyes set on and I’m going to do whatever I can to end up there. BUT it could take a while to get the credentials to get that job. Most other companies I will not have a problem walking away as soon as a better opportunity comes up. After all, the purpose of a job is to make money, and there is demand for whatever job I end up doing. It’s not like I’m leaving an employer high and dry, they can always hire some other applicant. Or, if they want, pay me more since I feel like I am worth more.
Speaking from a 20something – the days of loyalty to one employer are over. We are a generation that will snatch up opportunities quick.
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fs Reply:
September 3rd, 2009 at 5:25 pm
David – Interesting angle you have there regarding eyeing a particular employer, and hobbing around until you get to that perceived ideal employer. I guess I never really thought about it that way, and neither did RB probably b/c we both pretty much went to the desired “employer” when we finished school and stuck with them for the majority of our careers (15+ years for me, 10% years for him).
We’ll be interested in following your progress post college and where you land. It’s exciting times!
Shogun
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It is the biggest warning sign if someone has more than 3 jobs in 5 years at my old company. Nobody gets through the gates. Usually, those people turn out to be sour apples, or money hungry, disloyal people. There’s a reason why they can’t hold down a job. Buyer beware of the job hobber.
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