The Hindu Business Line : Mind your cellphone manners

I first heard this refrain when we started driving cars other than Ambassadors and Fiats in India. I wonder if this “rings” true again in the use of telecommunication equipment, specifically the mobile phone, which has made life at once ea sier and more challenging for managers.

One of the world’s larger steel companies was moving expatriates to India. My team had rehearsed and geared up for the top official’s visit. The Request for Proposal had gone well and they wanted to hire us. But, thanks to a colleague’s ignorance of cellphone manners, we almost lost the business on his very first onsite visit.

The Dutchman was visibly annoyed at how many times my colleague answered his cell phone and text messaged. He had managed to cleverly nip in and out of our conversations, picking up the thread and saying all the right things all along. However, our potential client’s sense of disquiet and mine of gloom (as I watched his body language) continued to mounted. I was not able to give my colleague the heads up without the client observing. Eventually, I saved the day by sending him an SMS from my cellphone — hidden inside my purse — saying he simply had to switch off his cell phone!

Here are some ways to increase our immunity to the cellphone and SMS disease:

Grow up and keep it brief

Ah, the choice of ring tones that tempt us, but don’t use loud and annoying ones. A baby crying or a Bollywood beat don’t say much about you or your professional image, and they destroy the peace of all those around. Any phone call is for communication, not conversation. So keep it brief.

Reduce audio nuisance

Gartner studies project that by 2009, cellphone sales will top the 1-billion mark – we know that the largest number of those mobiles will be sold in India. We have to be proactive to reduce noise pollution. Do switch off, turn to silent or vibrate mode phones at the work spot, at meetings, conferences and in public places such as in theatres and restaurants. If and when you must speak, do so in quiet tones. When you can’t hear, don’t raise your voice; raise your body instead and move out. Where you can’t, such as in a car, first seek permission to speak, then cover your phone with a cupped hand and speak into the microphone.

Maintain eye contact

In meeting etiquette, the most important thing is to maintain eye contact to display your involvement with the topic at hand. This is something we as Indians are still learning to do. But all is lost when we check or respond to a text message, even if we have kept the phone on silent. Never do this in a meeting. Loss of one’s pointed attention makes others feel you don’t care about them.

Language, lingo, lngage?

Because of the ease of sending text messages, we tend to neglect other people’s needs. However, technology is not the issue – people are. I learnt all about SMS manners from my Finnish clients, past masters at telecom. Who better than the chief of Nokia to teach me about SMS etiquette? He led by example, treating it the same as any other business correspondence.

Here is an SMS sample from Jukka Lehtela, the chief of Nokia’s India operations:

Dear Ranjini, Request a delay in our meeting by 30 minutes. Brgds, Jukka.

Please notice the following seven things and see how many of these you would have done: Dear, name of the recipient, a comma after the recipient’s name, capital “R” for request as the first word of a message, full stop after sentence, salutation short form for ‘Best Regards’ and the sender’s name.

He always used a proper salutation and my name and this touched me. I had Jukka’s phone number saved and would have known the message was from him, but he always signed his name anyway. He did not allow himself any bizarre SMS language shortcuts and he used punctuation. Best of all, he always and without exception, promptly acknowledged any SMS I sent him.

Return calls

Okay, so you did all the above, kept your phone on silent and did not respond to text messages during a meeting. But now you have folks who tried to reach you. Well, return every call — you must.

A Senior Vice-President of Ford Motors taught me this. He was in the midst of some business one morning, when I called his cellphone and he said he would call me back. That evening he called me on his drive home from the factory apologising profusely, as I would have done only if I had committed a grave error. He explained himself and how it was his policy to return calls within four hours. “Gosh, if he can return every call he receives while he manages one of the world’s largest auto manufacturing facilities, I jolly well should be able to do the same,” I thought.

SMS in lieu of calls

When I have a missed call, I also use an SMS, apologising and asking the person to send me a text message. This is less intrusive and allows me to save my time and theirs. When we ask the caller to SMS, usually, the issue becomes shorter and more effective.

So new managers, do help yourself and others the next time you launch into the unwired ether.

(The writer is CEO of Global Adjustments, a relocation and cross-cultural services company, and is also the author of Doing Business in India for Dummies. She can be contacted at globalindian@globaladjustments.com)

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