Ping Pong Ball or Bat?

The volume of emails received on a daily basis has been described by managers as a significant cause of stress, a sense of loss of control, and a reduction in productive performance levels.

In 1964 Eric Webster wrote ‘How to Win the Business Battle’ in which he established that managers:

•  Spend less than an hour alone each day;
•  Get interruptions on average every 8 minutes;
•  Spend around 18% of their time being ‘creative’;         
• Spend more time talking than thinking;
• Allow the business to run them, rather than them run the business – being reactive rather proactive, and
• Have as much mastery over their environment as a ping pong ball.

These observations were made before the advent of the internet and the introduction of the blessed email – so what, if anything, has changed?  Nothing.

On a daily basis, at any point where we break for ten minutes, almost as one person everyone reaches for the mobile phone, and checks their voice mails and email messages.  Every break is the same and at the end of a stretching day where concentration has been demanding, people go off to their rooms not to relax but to ‘catch-up’ with the emails they feel they have to respond to.

In an article by Graham Allcott ‘Trainer’s tip: How to take back control of your email inbox’ http://tinyurl.com/6zpvwvw  he points out that research carried out by the Universities of Glasgow and Paisley discovered that one third of email users get stressed by the heavy volume of emails they received.

There is a common belief that one must respond to emails as though they are all urgent, but the impact of this response is reducing the quality of performance in other areas such as reflective thinking, creativity and quality of performance.

• Only 16% of managers have had training in how to use their email system effectively and how to manage their emails.
• Managers feel overwhelmed by the number of emails they receive every day with 84% stating that they receive unnecessary emails and dread looking at their inbox.

So what are the keys to more effective email management?  When we run email workshops we work on the following:

•         Reduce the amount of time you spend dealing with emails
•         Manage your inbox and reduce unwanted items
•         Reduce the stress you feel in managing your emails
•         Improve the quality of emails you send and receive
•        Reduce the number of emails you receive
•         Get better responses to the emails you send

If I had to pick one technique to help take back control and to reduce
stress levels it would be ‘manage your Inbox’.

Two simple actions:


Stop the system pinging to tell you that an email has been received. This is a constant distraction, you interrupt yourself and stopping and starting other work is very costly in time and performance quality.  So if you don’t know how to turn off the message that appears and constantly tempts you away from your work, on Outlook it works like this:

• On the top ribbon click on ‘Tools
• Select ‘Options’
• Select ‘ Preferences’
• Go to ‘E mail Options’
• Select ‘Advanced e mail Options’
• Under the heading: ‘When new items arrive in my Inbox’ Clear the tick box ‘Display a new mail delivery alert (default Inbox only)’
• Apply and then sit back and concentrate on your current piece of work

You decide when to take a look at the Inbox. Then ask yourself these questions:

1. Am I handling emails more than once?
2. Do I have an effective email filing system? Try the following: 

• Use an @sign at the beginning of a folder to bring it to the top of your list.
• Set up an @Action folder for items you need to react to and prioritise it using the system.
• Diarise when actions need to be completed.  
• To place an email in your calendar:

a) Highlight the relevant email

b) Go to edit, then Copy

c) Go to your calendar and select the relevant date and time

d) Paste email at the bottom of your calendar entry

e) Complete the subject line and timings

• Use flags for follow up
• Do not use your Inbox as a storage facility

There are so many ways you can manage your emails and take back control. Don’t allow yourself to be the ping pong ball, make yourself the bat.

Try Thinking of Yourself as an Aphid

Aphids probably appeared around 280 million years ago, in the early Permian period.  One of the keys to their evolutionary success is that they are parthenogenic - in other words they are asexual.

I’m not a feminist, but for the past thirty five years I have been told that very shortly women will be equal in the workplace.  The Equal Pay act was passed in 1970 and yet in September 2011, forty-one years later the dinner ladies at Sheffield City Council took their claim for equal pay to the Supreme Court. 

Equality means equal workloads; equal rewards and equal opportunities, and it's the equal opportunities that I want to talk about.

A report recently published by McKinsey & Co. found a positive correlation between higher levels of company performance and the proportion of women on the executive board, and they are not alone, there are numerous pieces of evidence which show that generally women bring balance and an effective leadership style into organisations.

The Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) has just published a report entitled ‘Ambition and Gender Report'. http://tinyurl.com/3tdc6zu

Amongst other things the report examines the factors impacting on women's career progressions.  Here are some of the interesting findings:

• In 2009-10 57% of first degree graduates were women.
• 49.4% of the UK workforce are women.
• 12% of FTSE 100 directorships are held by women (Cranfield School of Management latest annual report).
• 22% of senior management positions are held by women.

The broad findings suggest that:

"Men have higher levels of self confidence than women; this was evidenced by more than 50% of the women interviewed admitting to feelings of self-doubt relating to their performance and career compared to 31% of men.  In addition women were described as being more cautious in applying for jobs and promotions.  20% of men said they would apply for a role even if they were only partially able to meet the requirements of the job description." 

In terms of learning and development, whether it's workshops, skills training, or facilitating senior management meetings, I consistently work with groups made up of a majority of men.  Naturally maternity breaks and childcare issues take their toll, but there is more to it than that.

I have never yet met a business woman who was in favour of positive discrimination or who did not want to be judged on their own merits.  So where are the women at a more senior level?

I often find women to be very self aware in their roles, and this level of awareness seems sometimes to make them question their ability to perform as effectively or as confidently as their male counterparts.  Frequently women seem very conscious of their gender comparing themselves unfavourably to men.

By comparison, men do not appear to me conscious of their gender - they simply get on with it!

Perhaps the aphid has something we can learn from:

• They are not concerned with their gender.
• They are soft bodied and generally have little protection, although they can excrete a fluffy coating which can stop predators getting dangerously close to them.
• They have a wide variety of predators and parasites, but by forming a mass they are less likely to be predated.

I strongly believe the opportunities are there - but women have to be more self-confident, be less aware of their gender and just go for it.

I suggest try thinking of yourself as a person (or an aphid) -  it has worked for me.

Further reading: http://tinyurl.com/6j7up44 'Women's promotion opportunities'

http://tinyurl.com/3ev7zas 'Four ways women hold themselves back'