Hack Your Desk Phone With A Relevant Voicemail Greeting

By Matt:

Last month Jon offered some tips regarding how he uses his desk phone at work (or better, how he doesn't use it). Personally, I don't care to leave the "Send Calls" button on permanently and opt instead to decide on a case by case basis whether or not the call needs to be answered, but I'll let you review his post and decide for yourself.

Today, however, I want to tell you how I recently improved my office phone voicemail greeting that I implemented to cut down on voicemails and increase efficiency by redirecting traffic to my email. This is my new greeting...

Hi this is Matt. The best way to reach me is by email at myemail@mydomain.com. If you have an urgent need you can call my cell phone at ###-####. If you would like to leave a voicemail here, you may do so after the tone.

On the surface this doesn't sound too earth shattering, so let's break it down:

• First, I tell people that the best way to reach me is by email. This communicates the most appropriate way to garner my attention and solicit a quick response. Why email? Text based emails are easy to process and give colleagues the opportunity to outline their issues and needs, going into as much or as little detail as necessary. A voicemail on the other hand is a crapshoot - you never know what you'll get, and more often than not it ends up as a rambling six minute message that goes into excruciating detail, which you then have to listen to four times because the caller talks too fast, or mumbles, or is drowned out by the sound of an electric bandsaw from the construction next door.

• Next I explain that if they have an urgent need they can call my cell phone. This sounds like I'm simply inviting more phone calls, but I'm not. This is really a redirect - the phrase urgent need forces the caller to make a value judgement: "Is my need urgent?" I wager that most people will consider their needs important, but not urgent, and therefore will not call my cell but send an email instead. This option is comforting to the caller though; they aren't merely left to send a faceless email but instead have my mobile number at their disposal which in effect makes me appear even more available if a situation does arise.

• Finally, I offer the opportunity to leave a voicemail at my desk phone. Sometimes people just want to leave a message, and while this isn't ideal for me, my desk phone is ultimately my responsibility. I give this as the last option for a couple reasons, which leaves the caller with two impressions: 1) That this is not the best method to reach me, and 2) By leaving a message the caller must concede that what he has to convey is really not that important, and that to escalate his need he should (you guessed it) send me an email.

To be clear, this is not some lame attempt to avoid interaction with people. I do some of my best work by walking around the office talking to people, but if I'm in the midst of plowing through critical tasks I do everyone a disservice in taking time to field random phone calls. Also, as a person who is susceptible to a high degree of meetings, this method minimizes the instances where I come back to the desk with a boat load of time-waster voicemails.

Take charge of your phone and don't let the blinking red light rule your life. By filtering incoming calls with a relevant voicemail greeting you empower both yourself and your colleagues to get more done.

Working By Walking Around

By Matt:

I don't remember a whole lot from my high school classes. I was there. I learned things, so said my report cards.

But one thing that does stick in my mind vividly was a passage from a business text about Hewlett-Packard co-founder Dave Packard's principle of "management by walking around". It was such a straight forward simple idea:

Get up off your rear and go interact with the people that work for you.

Bring the team together, listen to your employees, involve everyone, make them feel important. Makes sense right? I said to myself, "Self, when you're a boss someday, you need to do this."

Fast Forward
Fast forward 10 years and, well, I'm not running a multi-million dollar computer manufacturing company. Technically I don't manage a team of individuals either, but I still find Packard's concept very valid.

I work in a building of 200 employees, and my job regularly involves the coordination of many cross-divisional individuals towards a common purpose. Meaning, I have to convince numerous people to focus on a goal that is collectively beneficial even though it's not a core focus of their day-to-day job. When all is said and done, one of my most useful techniques for getting things done in the team atmosphere has been a derivative of Packard's ideas - I guess you could call it "working by walking around".

Working By Walking Around
It's really the same core idea as Packard's - I will be much more effective in getting everyone on the same page if I get up off my rear and just have an actual in-person conversation instead of relying on phone and email. I maintain that meetings are generally inefficient, and I would much rather correspond by email, but we are humans after all, and sometimes a little face time is all it takes to get somebody on your side. Here are some "working by walking around" tips that I try to put to use:

• Build Relationships: Begin by simply leaving your desk and seeking people out. The end goal is to create genuine friendships so find a common ground - hobbies, sports, music, the latest episode of Lost. Friendships that center around the water-cooler tend to remain superficial, so make an effort to visit their office or desk, so long as this doesn't come across as intrusive.

• Not Just When You Need Something: It's easy to get in the habit of visiting a colleague only when you need something from them. It's also easy to get in the habit of having a genuinely friendly conversation, and then changing the topic to something work-related because you feel guilty. Resist these urges from time to time. There's enough work going on already - sometimes you need to take a moment to just be real and genuine with your co-workers.

• Sharing Bad News: When you have bad news you must share regarding a project, force yourself to convey it in person. It's much more difficult than sending an email, but delivering the message personally conveys a greater sense of joint ownership, and in my experience co-workers will appreciate your personal approach.

• Befriend The Assistants: It's human nature to be friends with our direct peers, therefore, in terms of organizational hierarchy - if you're a mid-level employee - be very careful that you don't overlook the assistants and administrators. At the end of the day, when you need to get something done, you'll need to have these folks on your side, so befriend them genuinely.

• Your Needs, Their Needs: If you come to a colleague with a need or a request, be sure you end the conversation with "Is there anything I can do for you?" You'll leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth if every time you show up at their door you have a new project for them to work on. At the same time, you can convey a genuine team atmosphere by offering your assistance, help, insight, feedback, and support towards their goals.
  

To be clear Working By Walking Around is not some superficial form of colleague manipulation in order to "get things" from them. It has both business-related and personal intentions, as well as payoffs. I genuinely like the vast majority of the people I work with, and this is because I have taken the time to get to know them on a level deeper than "Where are we on this?"

So while, yes, Working By Walking Around helps me get things done more efficiently and effectively, it also makes work-life exponentially more enjoyable. And enjoyment in our work leads to fulfillment, and after all... that's the point of all this anyways, isn't it?

Take A Deep Breath Before Responding To Your Boss

By Matt:

Last week I thought I would be risky and do something "innovative". Generally companies love innovation - it's one of those business-ish words that sounds really good and implies we're making more money.

I was working on a presentation to deliver to accounts and was experimenting with a way new way to present it digitally. I emailed the concept around, and well, apparently my little idea was a little too risky to be considered innovation... probably too many bureaucratic rules broken or something like that. I got an email back with several reasons why it wouldn't work and why we couldn't do it this way, and so on and so on.

Of course my initial reaction is to get defensive and fire back some snotty unfounded response, but I restrained myself for once. I took a deep breath, spent three minutes reviewing Jon's post on "Pushing Decision Making Down", and drafted an email response that I didn't even send until the next morning.

It paid off and my idea was accepted. Here's how I convinced management that I was right:

• Take A Deep Breath: Control the urge to fire back a quick response that isn't well thought out. Take a walk down the hall, go grab a Coke, play a game of Sudoku... whatever you need to do.


• Review Management's Reasoning: Management's negative response will generally include 1-3 reasons why you can't move forward with your idea or proposal. Write down those reasons - you will need to speak directly to them in your response and this list will serve as your outline.


• Back It Up: If you're going to convince management of anything it's going to be done with numbers and logic. Fill in the gaps around the outline you created and speak to the concerns by backing up your reasoning with valid statistics (money saved, dollars earned, etc.) and reasons based on productivity, efficiency, and valid comparisons to related examples.


• Write A Polite Introduction: Once you've nailed the facts, go back to the top and kick off your response with a short but polite acknowledgment of the reasonings you were given for denial. Something to the effect of, "Thanks for your note regarding my idea, and I appreciate your concerns. I've been considering your thoughts and wanted to respond to them as still I feel this can be an effective solution...."


• Proof And Send: Whenever you're having to fight for approval it's best to double-proof your words... make sure you haven't said anything antagonistic and that you've stuck to clear and concise facts. Once you're done, send away!
  

In my experience when you really back up a solid idea, and remove emotion from the equation, you can break through most resistance. It may not work every time, but that's ok... if you're not making progress after a couple attempts, it's probably not worth any more of your effort anyways. At the very least you'll be respected for your attempt and credited with thinking out of the box, and those are good qualities to have in the bank.

Hack Your Desk Phone - Filter Calls To Voicemail

By Jon:

I don't know if everyone has one of these contraptions these days, but many desk jobbers are forced to respond to the beck and whim of the dreaded office phone. It's a voicemail receptacle, an instant communicator for those ignorant of IM or email, and a major distraction against productivity.

I rarely use my desk phone to make calls and I've come to dread it's familiar ring. To help cut back on calls and help increase my productivity, I have permanently enabled the "Send Calls" function on my phone. This function is found on most desk phones and sends all incoming calls to voicemail.

Now, it's not total communication shutoff -- you hear half a ring, the caller's name appears, and you have about 10 seconds to answer before voicemail takes over. On the caller's end, they hear a beep and then a ring; this also occurs when you're on the other line. As such, most people associate this sound with the latter and think you're on another call.

Most people, upon hearing this, either hang up or leave a voicemail. There's a slim group that I always pick up for, but a majority of my calls I don't answer anymore. The majority of those I ignore send me an email, and a slim few leave a voicemail, while one or two choose to pay my office a visit...!

For the most part, this has become an incredible filter for me and has saved immense amounts of time. I like this method better than a rambling voicemail greeting about my preference for colleagues to email me; it's not as rude and allows you a chance to answer the phone. Do you have methods of dealing with your phone calls too? Does your desk phone have a Send Calls button? Do you even have a desk phone?

Pushing Decision Making Down

By Jon:

One of the recent slogans running through our management lately has been "Push Decision Making Down." This is a simple concept: stop relying on our managers and executives to approve decisions and make choices that lower level employees could make just as easily.

Sounds great, right? It's the dream -- a corporation that trusts it's mid-level and low-level employees and allows their decision making to flow with day-to-day business needs. Sounds like a fast, smart, lean business at it's finest.

Some of you may have this policy at your organization as well, and I'm honestly curious as to how well it's working. Last week, our CFO, CMO and President of Sales and Marketing decided to organize a weekly one hour meeting to approve all promotions and sales our marketing team pushes through.

That's right - every idea our marketing team has, every sale, every promotions push, everything has to have the stamp of approval of the top executives in the company. Considering this meeting is held weekly, it's already put a strain on our marketing team; instead of brainstorming with their team and working with our accounts directly, there's a week delay while we have to wait for the execs to sign off on the plan.

I could go on about this policy paradox for days; however, I'll try to channel this frustration into something positive. Instead, let's talk about ways to get a boss to say 'yes' to your ideas. Here's some tips to bring to the table in your weekly executive approval meetings:

• Plan out the problems. What could go wrong? Your supervisor's likely to poke holes in every idea, so having something to dam those up is key. Think up the most obvious things and address those in your initial pitch, so you won't have to answer unnecessary questions later.
• Start at the end. Tell your boss what action is needed first and if explanation is needed, fill them in on the details. Basically, start with a what and a when, and follow with a why and a how if need be. Often that's all that's needed to get the job done.
• What's the benefit? Plan out some simple numbers -- CFOs are generally into that sort of thing. How much exposure, how many eyeballs will see it, and how much income it will generate; stats can be key when reaching for something big.
• Get in and get out. Brevity is key. There are many circumstances where you'll have them sold on your idea, but right at the end you lay all your cards down and your hopes are dashed. Certainly explain the risks and costs, but leave it brief and as sunny as possible.
• Talk over their head. This is my personal favorite. My job is sort-of technical, and my boss is not. This leads to a lot of great opportunities to speak geek and confuse. If I can point out some options that befuddle the management, and I say them with certainty, it's likely I'll just get a yes.

Hopefully with these tips you can talk your way in and out of an executive approval meeting (if your company even has those). That, or just getting your boss to sign off on your business expenses.

For more great tips and insight on the "yes" word from the mouth of an executive, check out Michael Hyatt's great blog post on Manager Approval:

How to Get Your Boss’s Approval When You Need It