Consider this scenario: A colleague pays you a visit at your desk. The two of you are involved in an important conversation when the phone rings. You have voice mail capability, what do you do?
Do you interrupt your conversation and answer the phone?
Do you continue to focus your attention on your visitor?
Most people would agree that completing your conversation is not only polite, but shows respect for your visitor.
Today, voice mail allows us to retrieve and respond to these calls, but what action do you and your staff normally take?
Recognize how responding to every interruption disrupts your work flow.
Responding to routine messages or phone calls that could be answered later is an example of placing some of the most unimportant or routine tasks into an “urgent” category and the primary drain on your productivity.
Encourage others to distinguish between distracting interruptions that prevent them from doing the most important things and those that truly require an immediate response.
By limiting those distractions, your team will be able to focus on important tasks such as producing client deliverables, which is what everyone wants.
Send a Different Message
People notice when you treat others with respect. Think of the positive example you will project when you minimize interruptions during meetings or conversations and give each person your undivided attention.
