Why Responding to Your Boss Immediately Can Hurt You

Why Responding to Your babo Immediately Can Hurt YouWhy Responding to Your Boss Immediately Can Hurt YouThe other day, I welches struggling through some data analysis, a task Im admittedly not very good at and need to seriously focus on in order to get done, when my boss emailed asking for an update on a different project. It wasnt a time-sensitive request, but without thinking, I stopped everything so I could respond. This is a pretty common practice for me. When I see my boss name pop up in my inbox or chat window, I tend to scramble to answer her as quickly as possible. The reflex tends to be a hallmark trait of people who want to excel in their jobs. I know that my direct reports reply to my requests with speed they dont often have for others. And I myself have always replied to my bosses or anyone above them with the urgency of a 911 call. But is that a good thing?You may think a lightning-fast response to all your boss needs is helping your career, but its time to re-think that strategy. Here are three reasons you actually dont need to (and shouldnt always) respond as fast as possible. Not Everything Your Boss Sends You is UrgentThis may sound like a duh comment, but we tend to believe that everything our superiors are working on is extremely important. But in the same way that everything you do isnt urgent, neither is your managers work. And while he or she may love getting an answer from you quickly, it might not make much of a difference whether you respond today, tomorrow, or Tuesday. A great strategy to implement is something we call managing up, or letting your boss know what you need to get your job done (and done well). An example of that is to simply ask your boss if the matter is urgent or if there is a deadline. You could say something like, I saw your request for the email campaign numbers for April. Can you let me know when youd like those by so I can prioritize my work? You may learn that he or she doesnt need an update until the end of the week, in which case you can tackle it at a later time. Its Better to Show Your Boss You Can Prioritize Than Answer ImmediatelyAs a manager, its great knowing that my employees can prioritize their work and dont have to rely on me to tell them what to do and when to do it. I send my current direct report a lot of requests each day and value that she tells me shell get to some of them later because she is working on something thats more time-sensitive. It shows me that she understands our business and knows how to optimize her day to get the most important things done. Youre Hurting Your Own WorkIn the example I used above, I ended up losing my place in the data analysis and had to go back and re-start a portion of it. I ended up wasting a lot of time to answer my boss on something she ended up not needing right away. If I had waited and finished my analysis, I would have ended up saving a lot of time, while still getting her what she needed long before she was expecting a response. At the end of the day, unless your job is to be at your boss beck and call, theres no reward for replying within seconds every time youre asked for something. Thats not to say you shouldnt be hyper-aware of your boss requests or ignore them. A quick reply saying that youre on it and giving a estimated timeline of when it will be done will reassure your manager that he or she can trust you to get things done- and prioritize well. Photo of phone courtesy of Shutterstock.