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The Power of Responsiveness

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Photo Cred: Haitham Salim/ Pexels

Your inbox is packed, and your voicemail is full. There is a line outside your office, or you are pinged incessantly. You feel like telling everyone to take a number. Being responsive is a conscious and powerful decision that has numerous positive effects on your business and personal relationships, not to mention, a reflection of good old-fashioned decency. Lack of responsiveness can be your downfall.  

Responsiveness requires you to carve out time daily and to prioritize responsiveness as a critical task. 

Responsiveness implies communicating in a timely fashion – and may depend on the situation – from immediately to 48 hours but not beyond. 

Responsiveness demonstrates empathy towards the other individual. You may not share the same concern but understand that it is an important concern for THEM and therefore merits a response. 

Responsiveness does not mean that you must provide a final answer YET but acknowledge the communication and establish a timeline. 

Responsiveness builds trust and loyalty; it strengthens connections and relationships. 

Responsiveness demonstrates a sign of respect and value for another person’s time and effort and for that individual. 

Lack of responsiveness sends an equally strong message of disrespect, and devaluing of the other individual or their time, effort, or inquiry. 

Being proactive in your communications is also a type of responsiveness, eg sending a follow-up after an important meeting, a summary of next steps, a thank you after an interview, etc. 

Responsiveness has a positive impact on others, it is a time-saving activity in the long run and can lead to overall business and personal success. 

The HR Leadership Disconnect

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“Our people are our most important asset”

— So says almost every CEO.

Yet most companies do not live up to this statement. 

How do I know that most companies do not live up to this statement? I hear this from top HR Leaders every week. (Complaint No. 1)

Do you want to know what I else HR Leaders grumble about?

They complain when executives without HR experience become CHRO or Chief People Officer. Nothing makes the ambitious HR Leader that is in line for the top job more frustrated than when they get passed over by someone that comes from the business and ‘knows nothing about HR’. (Complaint No. 2)

Complaint No. 1 is valid. Forward looking HR Leaders that want Complaint No.1 to disappear need to embrace No. 2.

Let’s take a look at this real-life situation from the new this week.


Deirdre O’Brien, a 30-year Apple veteran, will now lead Apple’s Retail and People teams.

Apple’s Head of Retail retired, and the role was given to the Head of HR in addition to her current role. Now Dierdre O’Brien is Head of Retail + People at Apple. Dierdre is not an HR lifer – she has cycled through business leadership roles and is continuing on the path beyond HR. When she becomes CEO one day, wouldn’t you want her as your CEO?

One of today’s most iconic CEOs is Mary Barra of General Motors. She too spent time in HR in a senior leadership capacity. This has helped her not only understand the various facets of the business that she has cycled through during her career, she is now leading the dynamic people based changes and disrupting the transportation business in the process.

These are just some of the situations where business leaders are cycling through HR on their way to the top.

The pessimist can look at situations where the Head of People role goes to an ‘outsider’ from the business and says ‘this is not good for the company’.

An optimist (count me in here) looks at this and says that the best way to get a future CEO to truly understand that people are a company’s most important asset is for them to have an opportunity to do so.

My challenge to HR Leaders: Embrace the opportunity to have your business leaders get hands on HR experience. If you really care about the people and know that if is through people that your business will succeed, take the opportunity to support these business leaders become better People leaders.

The Value of “Thank You”

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Most parents drill their children to say “thank you” when receiving something from someone. People that meet children judge their parents favorably when the children are polite and say “thank you”.

There is a good chance as a child your parents ‘strongly suggested’ you write Thank You Cards for birthday and other gifts received from relatives and family friends.

In today’s age of instant communications, is saying “Thank You” a lost art?

People say “Thank You” all the time. “ty” is the new “Thank You”. However a text message or email or LinkedIn message is easy, and has less impact. How you say Thank You is important. Taking effort to communicate your thanks is much more effective than saying these two words in passing.

When you want to make a difference and want to be remembered, go out of your way when saying thank you. This applies in a job interview context as well as networking. The cost of a card and a postage stamp is minimal compared to the return you receive on being remembered and staying top of mind.

Stand out from your peers. Buy a set of cards and stamps and keep them on your desk. Use them liberally. Write notes with meaning and value in your own handwriting. I guarantee an excellent return on investment.

When was the last time you sent a Thank You Card?

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Samuel Dergel is a Principal with Dergel Executive Search. He is an executive search consultant, executive coach, blogger, speaker, trainer and author.

This blog originally appeared in Samuel’s CFO Blog

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