Effective Communication with Your Manager

A note to young executives.

With text messaging now carrying the bulk of internal business communications, here’s a quick communication tip.

Don’t text your manager: “Something’s come up. When is a good time for me to have a brief chat?”

Your manager is likely busier than you are. This text gives your manager no information as to the nature of the issue, how important or how urgent. It wastes valuable RAM in your manager’s brain and leaves them guessing.

Text instead: “Re project X, we’ve had a 15% blowout in budget ($35m) due to a rise in material costs. We should be able to recover most, if not all, of the cost overrun through value engineering. Will have final figures by the end of the month. Will update you then.”

Be concise but always give enough detail for your manager to be able to assess how best to prioritise.