Toxic dependability
Are you coming off as untrustworthy to your boss?
How quickly do you respond to your boss’s emails?
Within the workday
Within the hour
Within seconds
If you chose #3, we need to talk. No, actually, I need to talk: Stop Doing That.
It may seem counterintuitive, but the faster you respond to your boss, the weirder it gets for them. “She responded so fast – what is she even doing over there?” Exactly.
Now, you might be doing tons – everything! For everybody! (We’ll talk about that later.) But responding to every email like it’s an employment 911 call is not doing you any favors. Trigger warning: It’s even making you seem untrustworthy and a little unhinged. (Sorry!)
Here’s the good news: It’s easy to fix. How easy? Just don’t respond right away. That’s it. Mark that email for later, and get back to it. Sometime. After all, you’re doing things. You’re strategizing. You’re prioritizing. From now on, not everything is an emergency. And your future promotion will thank you for that.
You might find this interesting: I share how to communicate like a corporate badass in episode 84 of my podcast, Women Changing Leadership.