It’s a feature

I have various platforms for various activities and about half a dozen different email alias depending on whether its personal, work, local bellringing or national bellringing. Some are redirected through others and some are direct. However, what I’ve been noticing is that since using Office 365 and MS Teams for some of the bellringing activity, some emails aren’t getting through either at all, or arrive several days later, when of course I’ve missed whatever deadline was involved, or not provided feedback as appropriate.

I was on a call today where it was noted that I hadn’t given any feedback which was odd considering it was me that had raised the issue in the first place. I had to admit to not having seen an email with the relevant document at all. When I checked the various email accounts what I seemed to have had was other people’s responses, but not the original email with the attachment. Someone very kindly emailed it to me again via a different route and it did arrive.

What I’m not sure about is whether that’s because the redirects from some of the email alias’ aren’t working properly, or there’s a more fundamental issue with the setup, or whether it’s a “feature” of the system and something that I’ll have to live with. I’m not technically minded enough to be able to figure it out and due to the desired firewalls and spam blockers we have on our PCs at home, maybe some of it is getting lost in the ether.

So, if you’ve sent me an email and I haven’t responded it may well be that I haven’t had your message in the first place, unless I am actually ignoring it. I am also not permanently attached to my emails; I do have the occasional evening where I don’t spend it on the computer after a 9½ hour day at work sitting at a computer. I might just jump in an out to check that there’s nothing urgent or fire out a couple of other messages whilst I’m thinking about them.

Often, I set aside a time when I’m going to blast through emails. I’ll file the ones that need filing, respond to the ones that need responding to and maybe leave some others until another time to deal with. The other problem of course, is that to use any of the other email alias’ apart from the ones attached to Office 365 I have to use the main PC rather than my laptop, and that means waiting for C to finish whatever he’s doing.

I will get around to dealing with it eventually, but if it’s not urgent, or requires a response, I might not necessarily deal with it straight away.

Lost Emails

I wondered whether it had all gone quiet, I was being ignored, or something was amiss. I usually get about 20 emails a day to my various “home” accounts, excluding spam. By that I mean my own email address, my Association emails addresses and my Central Council addresses. For the last few weeks I’ve had significantly fewer.

Needing to be on a Zoom meeting I was concerned that 24 hours before the meeting I hadn’t had the Agenda and supporting papers, nor the link to the Zoom meeting. A quick fire email to the right person and it seems that my name had dropped off of the email group so I hadn’t received what had been sent out.

Because I was using my laptop, not the main PC with the main email stuff in, I had to log into my Gmail account, but the email that had been sent with the meeting information wasn’t there. I was frantically trying to log into everything. Outlook, Gmail, Office 365. Depending on which of the aliases used, depends on where the email ends up. Ended up having to email it to myself from the home PC to the Gmail account. Eventually got in, but not without some angst.

Whilst I was logging into various emails boxes, I also came across a couple of other emails that seemed to have been sitting in a Spam folder for one account but were not showing in any of the other redirected accounts. They were quite important emails too. I thought that all the email redirects were supposed to find their way into at least one of the 3 main email address locations.

Apart from my work email address, of which I have 2, I have 6 other alias email addresses for various roles. The majority of them get redirected via our main location but with the recent addition of Office 365 for some ringing activity, that seems to have thrown a spanner in the works. Sometimes I get duplicates, sometimes I get none. Sometimes I get someone else’s reply before I get the original message. Sometimes it takes 2 days for them to come through.

I’m reasonably IT literate, but this gets so confusing.

There’s an app for that

NHS Leadership Academy Healthcare Leadership Model

It seems that there’s an app for just about everything going. The latest one to land in my inbox is from the NHS Leadership Academy based on their Healthcare Leadership Model.

This model became very familiar to me as I was studying my MSc in Senior Heathcare Leadership via the Academy. It covers the 9 leadership dimensions of inspiring shared purpose, leading with care, evaluating information, connecting services, sharing the vision, engaging the team, holding to account, developing capability and influencing for results.

Throughout my course, which was a few years ago now, I referred to this model constantly. It has practical suggestions as to support you whether the behaviours are essential and you demonstrate proficiency, strength, or showing exemplary performance as a healthcare leader against each dimension.

To be honest, you could take away the “healthcare” part and it applies to any leadership role in any organisation, at any level.

Being an effective leader manifests itself from how we manage ourselves as leaders. How we recognise our self-awareness, self-confidence, self-control, self-knowledge, personal reflection, resilience and determination are the personal qualities and foundations of how we behave and how we interact with others, and they us.

All of this has a direct impact on our colleagues, our teams and our culture and climate within our teams and across our organisation.

Every now and then I revisit the model and on my latest look discovered that there is now an app that allows you to record observations of leadership behaviours and explore them using the dimensions. You can add your own reflections on yours or observed behaviours and look at summaries.

I shall download it and have a play.

You’ve got mail

One of the things I dread when I go back to work after some annual leave is the size of the email in box. I refuse to log in when I’m on leave or my day off. If I’m not at work, I’m not at work.

To some in managerial positions that might seem like sacrilege. Surely if you’re a manager you should be available all the time. Well, no. I’m available the hours to which I am contracted to and for what you pay me, and if the work you are asking me to do falls outside of that, then we need to have a serious conversation.

I have done my fair share of ridiculous hours, weekends, nights, earlies etc. Been on call, been on conference meetings, and been in for meetings on my day off and all sorts. The trouble is, the more you do it, the more it becomes expected, and the more you get in the habit of doing it, and don’t switch off.

I do make some concessions. If a meeting absolutely has to take place on my day off and its imperative that I’m there, I will of course support it if I can. But I ensure I get that time back.

I have so much else going on in life outside of work too that I can’t afford to do it. My brain would explode.

There should be nothing that either can’t be dealt with by someone else, or that can’t wait until I get back.

My role as a manager and leader is to equip my staff to be self sufficient and confident to deal with most eventualities, and I should not be a bottleneck in the way.

So, 305 emails in the inbox after 1 week off. A chunk of those are routine and can be dispatched fairly promptly. That took me down to 206 by lunchtime. Then there’s the ones that I do need to read but don’t necessarily have to do anything with or about. Then there’s the ones that do require input.

By the end of the first day back I’ve got them down to a manageable 31. And don’t forget, more were coming in throughout the day too.

Another day tomorrow and another new bunch of emails to wade through.