Break free from your Inbox

In week three of our newsletter, I want to focus on a topic that’s been on many leaders’ minds as they return to work—our email inbox and how it impacts our time, priorities, boundaries, sense of control, and ultimately, our leadership ability. More importantly, what we can do about it?

🧠 LEARN something.

Leaders have a love-hate relationship with work emails—and it seems to be getting worse by the year. Circa 1980, IBM popularised internal company email for efficiency. Today, that same internal email has become the bane of many leaders, who fall into the trap of ‘living in their inbox,’ believing that swift responses and a clean, organised inbox equate to productivity and success. Some leaders even boast about their email hygiene. That’s great for operational and management efficiency, but it’s far from true for people leadership. Personally, I sometimes wish I could just walk a printed paper memo over to the other side of the office—so I can run into a dozen people along the way—which goes against the very reason email was invented in the first place. Therein lies the irony

Interestingly, the same decade that gave us work emails also gave us the antidote to this problem: Management by Walking Around (MBWA). The term was coined in the same era by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman in their book In Search of Excellence. MBWA is needed today more than ever before. Let’s face it—nobody builds trust, strengthens relationships, or collaborates effectively through stellar email skills. Yet many leaders end up bogged down in their inbox. At best, your inbox is a black hole for your precious time and energy—or an emotional trigger, as you wind yourself up and waste energy overinterpreting and replying to an email that could have been solved with a two-minute phone call. At worst, you’re sending a message: “I’m unavailable unless it’s in writing.”

🤔 REFLECT on a idea.

Just because you receive an email doesn’t mean it’s urgent, and just because it’s urgent doesn’t mean it’s important. I love what my friends at PEP Worldwide say: “Are you living in your inbox or your calendar?” In other words, are you in control of your time and priorities, or is your inbox controlling you? Yet so many leaders start their day by opening their inbox—letting the world dictate their time and boundaries.

😊 SMILE a little.

What’s a leader’s worst nightmare?

Seeing “(1)” next to their inbox and wondering if it’s the email that will destroy their career 😂

✅ DO IT to get results.

Get deliberate and disciplined. Start your day by planning in your calendar and setting your priorities for what must, should, and could be done that day. Then—and only then—open your emails, rather than reaching for them first thing in the morning or as soon as you get to work.