Do you answer or do you ignore?

Your Friday Trigger Question #128

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Years ago, I met with a manager in his office when his land-line telephone rang. He ignored it. Being polite, I suggested it would be okay if he wanted to answer it. “No”, he said, “You took the trouble to come to me. If this caller wants to talk to me, he can call back. Or he can do what you did, visit with me in person.”

Let’s scroll forward to recent times. I’m an outsider in a meeting with executives when a cell phone rings. The meeting falters as almost everyone grabs at their cell phones. I look at the CEO. He shrugs.

And that's how the executives treated the strategy work we were engaged in. With a collective shrug. (I wonder if they shrugged when their business closed down.)

Few people, I am sure, pooh-poohed the manager who ignored his phone. Today, I wonder how high up the corporate ladder he climbed.

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Your Friday Trigger Question:

Do you answer or do you ignore?

Welcome to my side of the nonsense pooh-pooh divide.

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