I hear these two comments a lot:
- ‘With communication, I prefer verbal, not written’
- ‘Most communications I receive are written’
Which reminds me of something I recently saw on LinkedIn:
Manager: Did you call that customer?
Colleague: I emailed her. She didn’t reply
Manager: Yes – but did you call her?
Colleague: No. So I chased with an instant message. She didn’t reply to that either
Manager: One more time – did you call her?
Colleague: No, you’re right – I’ll send her another email
Sound familiar?
Yes, we all know that ‘written’ has its place – as these written Tuesday Tips kinda prove.
But the fact is: many of the people we communicate with – they prefer verbal to written. Especially for things that are personal, complex or contentious.
And, let’s face it: verbal is more fun than reading and writing. And work isn’t always as much fun as we’d like it to be.
So, a simple question for you this week:
Are you ‘being verbal’ enough?
Which means that today’s Action Point is simply…
Action Point
Pick. Up. The. Phone.