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Make Them Communicate Your Way
To: To: The Chief of Staff to the Mayor of Zenith City
From: Bob Behn
Re: The Tyranny of E-mail
Date: June 2001
Don’t let your subordinates decide how they will communicate with you. Instead, require them to communicate with you in the way that you prefer.
 This advice doesn’t just apply in the era of e-communications. It has always applied. Effective managers make sure that their subordinates understand how they want information.
Conversely, effective subordinates figure out how their bosses want information. One reason why you are chief of staff to the mayor is that you figured out how she likes to get information. You figured out how she likes to make decisions. That’s why she trusts you: You give her the information that she needs, when she needs it, in the way that she likes it. You present her with the options that she needs, when she needs them, in the way that she likes them. Demand the same from all of your subordinates.
Communications
In particular, demand that your subordinates communicate with you in the way that you prefer.
If you prefer meetings, make them give you information in meetings.
If you prefer memos, make them give you memos. (If you prefer one-page memos, make them give you concise, clear, one-page memos. If you prefer long, detailed memos, make them give you these kind of memos.)
If you prefer to get information by e-mail, fine. Then make sure that your subordinates understand this.
Don’t let your subordinates select their preferred communication mechanism. When they communicate with you, make them use your preferred mechanism.
To do this, you have to reward those who respond to your preferences. This is relatively easy. As chief of staff, you have lots of ways to reward people. And I’m not talking about a bonus or a raise. I’m talking about access to you. I’m talking about the mayor showing up at a department head’s important conference to deliver official greetings and shmooze with the participants. I’m talking about some extra money in next year’s budget or an extra personnel slot.
Decisions:
You are making too many decisions — decisions that your subordinates should make, decisions that your subordinates have the responsibility to make, decisions that your subordinates are in a better position to make.
You have to refuse to be trapped by their responsibility-avoidance strategy. It doesn’t make any difference whether they use e-mail, voice mail or paper. Don’t let them bump up to you decisions that they should make. Subordinates have always done this, of course. E-mail hasn’t created this strategy, it’s just made it easier. Without much thinking — by just pounding on a keyboard and clicking “send” — subordinates can now implement this strategy. E-mail has simply made Boss Toss easier.
To avoid being trapped, you might establish some rules for what has to appear in the subject line. (Lot’s of managers have established rules for how subordinates should structure decision memos. The same can apply to decision e-mails.) After all, you’ve already made it clear to everyone in city government that you never open an e-mail attachment that comes with some kind of generic, one-line message such as “Hey. I thought you might find the attached of interest” or “Here’s the data you requested.” Your friend, the city manager in Nadir Valley, did that once and it took a week to get the virus out of the city’s computer network.
Similarly, you might require that anyone who sends you an e-mail requesting a decision put the word “Decision” at the beginning of the subject line. If they do, you will open the e-mail within, say, 48 hours. (They can’t send you an e-mail and expect a decision within 48 minutes). And you will read the first paragraph. But unless the sender makes it very clear in the first paragraph why the decision should be yours, you will automatically return it for the sender to make the decision.
Then, the next time that someone attempts to slip a decision into your e-mail in-box, figure out some way to punish the violator. You can’t really punish Ron Beck; you hadn’t established any formal rules. Moreover, he was playing by the well known (if only implicit) rules that you had permitted to evolve. Besides, you have already humiliated Beck; he’s been punished enough. But once you have clearly created your new rules for communication and decision making, don’t tolerate anyone who tries to squeeze something past you.
So take command of your time, your in-box, and your subordinates. Don’t let them play Boss Toss. Don’t let them force you to play by their rules. Create your own communication rules. Create your own decision-making rules. Create rules that mesh with your style and that fit with your responsibilities and theirs. Then enforce these rules. You and they will be better for it.
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Copyright © 2001, Congressional Quarterly, Inc. Reproduction in any form without the written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Governing, City & State and Governing.com are registered trademarks of Congressional Quarterly, Inc.
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