Effective Communication in the Digital Age

The world tumbles forward with unstoppable force. Are you keeping up?

With the pressures of “always on” technology and increased workloads, people make ineffective choices in choosing the correct channel for communication. Sometimes, like being taught how to listen, I wonder if people even consider the most effective channel – or have a framework to choose a channel. Have you ever stopped to consider the implications of how you communicate or deliver a message? If you are concerned about your productivity, you should.

I recently presented on this topic,”Effective Communication in the Digital Age.” Choosing the correct channel is crucial to your effectiveness. But, when should we be using the following channels: text, email, call and face-to-face interaction? There is certainly a time and a place for each channel, but when…and where…and how?

The short answer is that the more potential for complexity (questions) or emotional response (empathy) requires you to increase the level of engagement from an informal text to a face-to-face meeting. [The chart on slide 10 provides a clearer illustration.]

Hiding behind a medium is a great way to destroy relationships.

Personally, there were few situations that frustrated me more than when an employee didn’t follow this simple framework and chose the expedient path instead of the effective one. Hearing that an employee didn’t pickup the phone to share and explain that we would be missing a deadline drove me crazy. We were hiding behind a medium to deliver a disappointing piece of news. Hint: Inside disappointments are fabulous opportunities to build relationships – or destroy them. Or, hearing that we were “waiting” for a critical piece of information that was holding up a project drove me bananas because we had only sent an email…three days ago. Pickup the dang phone!

What drives you crazy about how people communicate with you in the digital age?

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PS – Figuring out effective communication can catapult your career forward. As I evaluated an employee’s ability to succeed at higher levels of responsibility, the ability to effectively communicate was a primary factor in my decision. Subscribers from the Harvard Business Review concur. They rated the ability to communicate “the most important fact in making an executive promotable.” They ranked it more important than ambition, education and hard work.
The stakes are high in learning to communicate effectively.

Featured Image Courtesy of English106 – No Changes or Edits