To Be More Effective: Look up, Walk Around, Speak with Your People

by Lisa Loehr

A friend of mine recently posted a viral video called “Look Up” that currently has over 45 million views. It encourages a young man to stop fixating on the mobile device in hand. If he doesn’t, he just might miss all the activity of the world around him and what could follow. The message is simple: Look up, be engaged, get involved and communicate with others. Continuing to look ‘down’ and communing with digital devices may result in superficial relationships and isolation in the long-term.

Being attached to our technical devices nearly 24/7 has exponentially increased over the last decade; a Pew Foundation survey noted that approximately 65% of the population keeps their mobile phone next to their pillow at night. This has led to addictive behavior—and I use the term “addictive” on purpose. One study from the University of Chicago found social media more addictive than alcohol and cigarettes.

Perhaps it is time to rethink our enormous focus on mobile devices and, dare I say it, e-mail at work.

I acknowledge technology is handy and expedient. Many of us are multi-tasking as never before. The emphasis in most of our businesses is doing more with fewer people.

We are also working in non-traditional settings, such as coffee shops and the metro, increasingly during non-traditional work hours—doing our best to respond to our colleagues in a timely manner. And it seems that even stepping away for a long weekend means returning to, literally, hundreds of e-mails. So, it feels natural to settle in to hours of texting and e-mailing responses in an effort to quickly take action and get things done.

For reducing and improving use of e-mail, Amy Buckner offers a few quick tips.

However, there is an inherent issue with our overuse of technology: It doesn’t do a very good job of communicating intention. We are not able to see the individual in front of us,  reach out, pat them on the arm to say “Good for you!” when they do excellent work. It doesn’t allow us to convey with conviction the gravity of a situation when a team member’s performance may be marginal.

While delivering data or a report by e-mail works well, many other types of interaction require a minimum of a phone call, and better yet, a web-conference or face-to-face meeting. Senior managers who get up from their desk, pick up the phone and put down the mouse have better relationships with their people. They understand the science behind non-verbal communication and how it can work for them.

Very simply, non-verbal cues come from factors such as facial expressions, gestures, body language/posture, and eye gaze. While it is the business of some people like the FBI to study these factors, you don’t have to be a secret agent to trust your instincts in a meeting to ‘read’ how an interaction is progressing. Many of us have heard that 80% of communication is non-verbal. This statistic originates from a study by Dr.’s Mehrabian and Wiener in the 1960’s. The authors arrived at a formula noting that body language (55%) and tone of voice (38%) are significant factors in communication, with the remainder being written word (7%). It is clear to see that texting and e-mailing leave a lot open to interpretation.

George Vaillant is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard who directed the world’s longest continuous study of physical and mental health. When asked what he had learned from his 40 years of research, he said, “…the only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people…” It’s tough to develop and nurture relationships if one is not looking up!

People don’t care what you know, they want to know you care.

So while we are working deliberately to be timely and share information, we may want to take on one of those social challenges to reduce our reliance on technology at work. Look up, stand up, walk around, pick up the phone, and for those in remote situations, web conference. Let’s conduct our own social experiment and see how it affects our success in communicating with our team members and other colleagues.

Whatever our field, we are in a people business, and much of the degree of our success is based on the quality of our relationships with our colleagues!

About Lisa Loehr
Lisa Loehr is an insightful human resource and operations consultant and leadership coach. She understands the significance of how we communicate with our people in our companies, motivate them and create and sustain an exemplary organizational culture that enhances success.