During my tenure I was astounded by the volume of email communication I received on a daily basis – there were simply times that I could not keep up which lead to a variety of problems: missing items that slipped down in the inbox, not responding to important requests in a timely manner, partially replying to inquiries because I didn’t have the time to think through the full body of the email and on at least one occasion more that once.

To get hold of your inbox the team at Thoughts2Lead suggests the following:

Set some rules for the team around the appropriate use of email; i.e. if you can say it face-to-face in a timely manner – say it. Don’t write it. Set boundary’s around responding by email on “top” of other team members responses. This type of back and forth is rarely productive and doesn’t benefit from the human interaction that solves real problems and challenges. And one freebee that won’t do much to decrease volume but will serve you and your organization well -never offer criticisms of the organization or others by email. If you can’t say it to the responsible party or parties – it probably shouldn’t be said.

Being clear with your team members as a leader about how you want them to communicate with you go a long way in mitigating inbox overload.

Consider using the auto-reply function of your email client to set reply expectations.

Remember that all of this rings hollow if you don’t model what you expect and live by what you expect.

Remember this too. You can always turn it off to create the space you need as a leader to think and respond well.