Leadership and Email Communication

Essay by SkinnerCDUniversity, Master'sA+, November 2008

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Email has become the easy way out for communicating with employees. "It was not that long ago that email did not exist, but it has taken over to the point of saturation" (Derrick, 2005). The leaders of businesses need to get back to talking to their people, involving their people, and inspiring their people. The lack of personal communication with employees has put a down spiral to the results of corporations worldwide.

Email has enabled leaders to become lazy when it comes to communication with their employees. Communications that were once unimportant are now being sent to employees. Then communications that are important are emailed rather than communicated one-to-one. With the overload of unnecessary messages being received often times "genuinely important messages get accidentally deleted, are examined too hastily, or are tugged out of reach by the daily tide and followed up on tardily or not at all" (Fry, 2007).

"Don't email people when a phone call or a face-to-face conversation would do the job. If you regularly email people in the same room, there's something wrong with you" (Reynolds, 2007). Do not break the communication line with the people you work with. Keep the lines open by talking to and interacting with the people you work alongside to. The best way to accomplish this is to have one-to-one discussions. Not only does verbal communication create openness it helps eliminate wasted time of writing and reading emails (Reynolds, 2007). Try to utilize email for important information as your last means of communication with employees. "Senior management should encourage greater emphasis on face-to-face or telephone communications, constantly reminding staff to use email only after careful consideration (Evans & Wright, 2008) Unnecessary emails takes important time from employees and employers that should be spent on more productive work.

When emailing is the...