4 Easy Steps for Increasing Stakeholder Satisfaction
Responsiveness. That’s what your key stakeholders want most from you (both personally and from IT in general). Simple, yes, but easier said than done. Case in point: The daily battle with your overflowing inbox.
With only a few minutes between meetings you quickly skim your inbox on your iPhone, praying you can just keep on pressing ‘delete’ as you keep an eye open for anything urgent, in particular- anything from your key stakeholders.
But, with an ever-increasing number of messages flooding your inbox, finding those important emails becomes tougher and tougher to do reliably. And as you nervously scan your email for the newest issue you have to deal with, you simultaneously wonder what’s buried a few days back that you have already seen and promised yourself and your stakeholder you’d work on.
Your next meeting looms closer and soon you have to put your iPhone away… the fear builds and you wonder… “Whose email should I answer first?”
Put an end to the worry and fear
Wouldn’t it be great to know you could always be on top of your email with your key stakeholders? You can, and you already know how. That’s right- as IT people I am going to ask you to actually use the systems you deploy for others!
Step 1: Create a bin (or folder) under your inbox and label it ‘VIP.’
Step 2: Set up a rule that filters all messages from your list of key stakeholders into the ‘VIP’ bin.
Step 3: The next time you log into your email client, go ahead and ignore your horribly overflowing inbox and go right to your VIP bin.
Step 4: Process every stakeholder message waiting there. You should be able to get through the whole bin pretty quickly, but if you don’t clear out every message every time that’s OK. At the least, you’ll know where to find them quickly next time you check in.
If you do get through your VIP bin and you have some time to spare, feel free to go through your general inbox and process anything high-value you find in there. But don’t start creating more bins and rules to try and deal with this mess.
One bin, one rule, and you’re done
It’s all you need. It’s simple, but effective, and it focuses your attention where responsive messaging matters most- as a crucial element of upholding stakeholder value.
