1. You failed to challenge their intellect
2. You failed to engage their thinking and creativity
3. You failed to develop their skills
4. You failed to include them and give them a voice
5. You failed to connect with them as a person
6. You failed to recognize their contributions
7. You failed to increase their responsibility
8. You failed to “walk the talk” yourself
Employees who are challenged, engaged, valued, and rewarded
(emotionally, intellectually and financially) rarely leave, and more
importantly, they perform at very high levels.
Terry
I hear email frustrations almost every day and also experience them myself. I thought it was stated very well in an article that I read recently by Richard Branson. In this blog post, I am providing you with some excerpts from his article as only he can say it best. "Why is it so hard to pick up the phone? The quality of business communications has become poorer in recent years as people avoid phone calls and face-to-face meetings in the interest of efficiency. I recently heard a senior manager defend his handling of a situation by saying, "I don't know why they didn't understand the issue. I must have sent a dozen lengthy e-mails on the subject in the last week." A brief conversation followed by a concise e-mail to confirm the next steps would likely have settled matters within a few minutes. Another executive complained, "I've sent the guy a bunch of text messages. I know he's there, so why isn't he responding?" Clearly, it would have been better to pick up the phone or walk over to that person's desk and discuss the matter face to face - a move that would have resolved the issue and immediately eliminated the growing tension." In short, if these managers had tried walking and talking instead of typing and griping, they could have solved these problems quickly and easily. 
