When Leaders Don’t Respond to Emails

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN. FAAN

A colleague recently discussed with me her concern about nurse leaders in her organization who don’t respond to their emails despite acknowledgement within the organization that it is the official means of communication.  She told me that it was disheartening to send an email to her supervisor and have it go unacknowledged.  From a leadership perspective, I thought about what this does both to the employee’s perspective about their leaders and the impact on the culture of the organization.  If you think about your own personal experience with this, how did you feel the last time you sent an important email and received no response.  Maybe at first, you thought the individual was busy and even perhaps sent a second email.  Then with no followup, you probably wonder what you are doing wrong and what is the problem with your relationship.  But after several episodes like this, staff will inevitably feel that you are indifferent and really just don’t care much about others.

Sure, we are all in email overload but this is no excuse for bad behavior particularly on the part of nurse leaders.  It sends a message to staff that they are not important and does not promote a positive work environment. It can also impact how you are perceived as a leader in a very negative way.  Sometimes, leaders don’t respond to an email because they don’t want to answer negatively but in many respects no answer is far worse than a negative answer.  It exacerbates conflict. Leadership expert, Margaret Hefferman, has noted that how responsive you are to email in today’s environment often defines your leadership.  She also notes that the following are important to consider: