If you’re a leader, you know often your employees overwhelm you with email. You’ve made it known that you want updates on projects and want to answer questions. You see this as an important part of your job. You’re always connected to your email, so it’s a good way to stay on top of things.
The problem is this practice can flood your inbox with messages because your employees are busy. Every time they share a status report or have a question, they send you a message. It’s not unreasonable to believe one employee could send at least ten such messages every day.
If you supervise several employees, all of those messages add up. This is on top of your normal work correspondence. You’re likely spending a lot of time triaging your inbox. Is it a surprise that sometimes you miss important messages or stay up late catching up them?
It’s a highway to burnout and you start to resent checking your inbox, which explodes every day.
Sharing information is good but what if you could control the flow, especially when it comes to your employees? Consider these tips to better focus your productivity and regain control your inbox:
Urgent vs. Important
Get with your employees and come up with a definition for what are urgent messages, that need an immediate response, and which are important. Important messages contain good information but do not require immediate action.
Group Important Messages
Have your team get out of the habit of sending you a separate message for every important item. Instead, have them start a draft email at the start of the day. Whenever an item comes up, add it to that message.
Send that summary email either once or twice a day. Before lunchtime and before the end of the day could work. Pick the frequency and time that works for everyone.
By combining these messages, you won’t see your employees overwhelm you with email. You’re able to stay up to date on important items and can answer issues or provide direction with fewer responses.
Those who have embraced this system, say it saves them time and keeps them from missing an urgent item that’s lost in a busy inbox.
Hate to Say this But…
It’s important to know what’s going on with your employees. But have you become a bit of a control freak? The downside of being perceived as the only person who can make a decision or okay a process is that you train people not to think for themselves.
If you have good people, is there some room to make sure they are trained, set expectations, and hold them accountable? This can reduce some of the constant flow of emails that you’re having to address.
Work with your team. Don’t let your employees overwhelm you.
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