First published 28 March 2022 on Your Best Year Starts Here with Nigel Risner.
Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Nigel had been working with a few teams who wanted people half in the office and half on Zoom, and he'd noticed something. Drag people in for a meeting and it had better be a really good meeting. Otherwise they just sit at their laptops like they would at home, except they've done an hour's travel first. And with the train strikes in London, some of them couldn't even get in.
His big point was about checking in. Ask your people how they feel about where they're working. He'd been ringing companies, hearing office noise in the background, asking how it was going and getting "I dunno why I'm here." That comes across to customers too.
For me it's the other way round. I haven't worked at the same desk every day since 2002, so the last couple of years stuck in one place (even if it was home) felt odd. Then I owned up. I'd got into bed, checked my email (bad move), and found three from a client in the US. If I waited till morning they wouldn't see my reply till their evening, so out came the laptop. Nigel's answer was that if I'd emailed him at nine at night, he'd either feel he had to reply or feel bad for not replying.
He asked if I remembered pagers. I told him I'm not that old. These days I look at my email two or three times a day, with no alerts on my phone, and I tell clients if it's urgent, WhatsApp me or ring.
Then Nigel's Calendly story. Someone emailed asking for his help, and the earliest 15-minute slot they'd give him was 27 April. So he rang. The guy picked up, Nigel asked if he had five minutes, and they sorted it in three. I did stick up for Calendly a bit, I use it with some coaching clients. And then my own phone rang near the end, a call I probably should've answered, so we wrapped up so I could ring back.
What stayed with me
- Only bring people into the office if the meeting's worth the trip in.
- Ask your team how they feel about where they're working. Then actually listen.
- Replying to emails late at night tells people that's normal.
- Tell clients the quickest way to reach you. For me that isn't email.
- If a booking link puts someone weeks away, just ring them.
And we need to really remember that we teach people how to treat us.
Nigel Risner
If you want a quick response, don't email me. If you email me and I see it, I'm gonna respond, but it's not the quick way to get me.
Neil Martin
