How do you typically communicate with colleagues?

If I’d asked you this question a couple of years ago, you’d likely have mentioned a mix of communication styles. A majority of you may have held most conversations or communications with your principal (boss) face to face, in person.  Whether you communicated with other colleagues in person, by phone, email or messaging apps may have been dependent on both you and the other individual – how well you get along, mutual availability and more. Factors such as physical locations, workplace demographics and culture may also have impacted your approach.

The fourth-last CEO with whom I worked commuted roughly an hour to and from the office each day. We’d have face to face time most days, and yet it was also routine for us to have our first conversation of the day by phone each morning, as he navigated a highway with both hands on the steering wheel. This was a great use of time for both of us, and helped us get our respective days off to running starts.

That was then; this is now

Now, as we approach the conclusion of a second year of pandemic life, things have shifted. Based on the results of my September 2021 Weekend Poll, there are significant variations in how assistants communicate with the people to whom they’re most accountable. Much of this hinges on where assistants and their colleagues are physically based.

Thirty-three percent of assistants who responded have been working remotely since 2020. Almost one in five – 18% – have continued to function in their traditional office environments this whole time. When we take into account assistants who had been working remotely and are now back in those office environments, 36% of respondents are now working onsite in office environments.

A significant portion, 22%, are functioning in hybrid careers, working both in the office and at home. 

The fact that an assistants is based in a traditional office environment does not necessarily imply that all colleagues are also back in the same locale. Your colleagues may have a mix of onsite, remote and hybrid work lives themselves.

Face to face, in person or over a screen, with principals

The days of assistants and their executives/principals having face to face conversations, in the same room, may be mere memories for many assistants. While 36% of respondents to my September survey said in person conversations are their primary mode of communications with their principals, another 22% are relying on technology and communicating in virtual meetings over a screen.

How do you and your principal typically stay in contact these days? More than one in five respondents, 21%, rely primarily on messaging platforms. Another 16% rely on emails, while only one in 20 – 5% – use phones for actual phone calls/audio conversations. 

Messaging and email the primary modes for communicating with other colleagues

How you communicate with colleagues other than your principal is often a different story. These days, messaging via one platform or another is the primary approach to such communications. Thirty-four percent of respondents told me they rely on messaging, and another 32% rely primarily on email for communications with colleagues who are not your principals.

Virtual meetings over screens came in third, as the tool of choice for 16%, followed by 11% for face to face conversations in person. Again, phone calls came in last place, this time at 7%.

Do you or your colleagues avoid phone conversations?

As a mother of millennials, I was not at all surprised to see phone conversations as the least-used mode of communication.

For anyone reading this who prefers almost any communication mode other than phone calls, you may want to be aware of findings reported in a recent Harvard Business Review (HBR) article. Writing about high-performing teams, psychologist Ron Friedman cited research showing that such teams are far more likely than their less successful peers to communicate with colleagues by phone calls. Friedman provided stats, as well, citing an average of 10.1 calls a day for the high performing teams in comparison to 6.1 calls a day for other peers. 

Have you ever read an email or other written message and wondered if you were correctly interpreting the writer’s tone? There can be greater clarity when we’re actually speaking with one another. Friedman suggests phone calls can prevent misunderstandings and, in turn, contribute to more successful interactions between colleagues. 

How effective are we in our communications?

It’s one thing to recognise our use of different tools or resources for communications with different colleagues and stakeholders. It’s another thing entirely to consider how effectively we’re deploying those tools. Watch for my next article on communications during pandemic times, and more results from this particular Weekend Poll.