The Secret of Successful Leaders

It’s a date in the not-too-distant future. Apple has just brought out the latest incarnation of the iSomething, Microsoft is on Windows 47, and the latest Samsung phone has set the markets on fire again! Of course, it’s expected that everyone is excited over the latest tech innovations – cue ads showing multigenerational, multiethnicity faces happily using whatever the must-have device is. It goes without saying that the devices will work smarter, faster, with even more functionality to help us ‘connect’ with anyone and anything, anywhere, anytime. No doubt well-worn rhetoric of how this brings us all ‘closer’ will be insinuated into the ad somewhere as well. When ‘now’ isn’t soon enough Technology has been steadily (if not stealthily) evolving, and training us to respond faster and faster. As we have become used to replying to texts, tweets, Facebook posts, instant messaging—the list grows every day—so our expectations of what is a ‘normal’ response time have changed forever, and this has bled into our working practices. Cast your mind back 5 years, 10 years, maybe—like me—you can even remember what work (and life) was like pre-internet, when exemplary customer service meant you responded the same day, not within 15 minutes (and that was when you were both in the same time zone, on a work day, and the request came in the morning). Those days are gone, and if you don’t get back to someone the moment their message comes in, you’re likely to get a follow up soon after. That puts a lot of pressure on…