WSJ writer Callum Borchers recently examined Gen Z employees' trepidation about using their phones to talk to other human beings. Borchers also got an earful from executives about this phenomenon, and they were – as you can imagine – quite frustrated with the younger set’s telephonophobia.
As the CEO of a company with many Gen Z employees and the father of two twentysomethings, I feel the grown-ups’ pain. To remedy the situation, I can offer five easy-to-implement tips that managers should offer to their teams to help them sharpen their phone usage acumen and etiquette:
Answer the phone.
When your phone rings and you recognize the number, click the Answer button and begin speaking. Very simple. Don’t let the incoming call go to voicemail then listen back and respond to the caller by email – unless you cannot pick up, that’s not acceptable. It’s also an inefficient use of your time: having a quick conversation prevents the need for any extra technology-dependent steps that might get delayed or forgotten.
Before making a call, text first.
If you need to speak with someone on your team, text them before ringing them. This simple move will let them know your incoming and upcoming call is legit and not spammy. Also in your text could be a quick FYI about the topic you’d like to cover in your call. Giving your call recipient a heads-up that you’ll be reaching out and what you need to discuss will be a useful precursor to your conversation.
Say what you’re going to say.
When the person you’re calling picks up and after you exchange brief salutations, provide a clear and concise overview of what you need from him/her. If you need to have these topics written down as bullet points, create, review, and sharpen/edit them before your call. The resulting list will be a tight script you can follow that will keep your call brief and flowing.
Adhere to your talking points.
In your conversation, follow your bullets in order, from point to point. Don’t linger or digress. If you have questions about responses to the topics raised, feel free to ask them. But don’t take your confab in a new and unplanned direction. If the person you’re speaking with starts to veer off course, politely and gently guide them back to your itinerary.
Summarize, conclude, then hang up.
Once you’ve covered the items on your script, it’s time to wrap up your call. But you don’t need to do it brusquely or rushedly. Tie up your dialog by thanking the party with whom you’ve been chatting for his/her time, review what you covered, and then conclude by asking “is there anything else we need to cover with all of this, and do you have everything you need from me?” Depending upon his/her response, the call may go on a bit longer, but be careful to keep things tethered to what needs to be covered and not veer off into a new and unplanned area.
To managers and executives of a certain age, it may be incomprehensible that the above telephone conversation protocol isn’t obvious and second nature to everyone on your team. But unfortunately, it isn’t. To provide Gen Z’ers with crucial communication skills that will help them to operate more professionally and allow your organization to run more efficiently, devise an education module (written, live, or pre-recorded) that clearly and patiently shares and teaches this essential guidance.
Dr. David Lenihan is the co-founder and CEO of Tiber Health, a global healthcare education startup. He's also the CEO of Ponce Health Sciences University, a medical school with campuses in Ponce, Puerto Rico and St. Louis, MO. His POVs on various leadership, productivity, and management topics have been featured in Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Forbes, Washington Post, Management Today, and many more.
