Image credit: Tom Hodgkinson – Flickr

I’m not the only one who struggles to manage email. Recall the McKinsey study revealing that the average “interaction worker” spends 28% of work week managing email. (I’m not sure what an “interaction worker” is, but I’m pretty sure I am one.) This equates to nearly three hours per day, on average. Add meetings on top of that, along with the actual work we’re expected to get done, and we’ve got a reliability crisis on our hands.

This just in from a former workshop participant, and reprinted with permission. It’s a really great reminder that sometimes the reason we don’t hear back from clients has everything to do with them, and not you.

I’ve been on the receiving end of a collection of reach-outs recently: a voice mail, a series of emails, and a bunch of LinkedIn invitations. Each and every one has bugged me a little; the collection has put me over the top. So it’s time for a plea to all these well-meaning people—the ones you are more like than you might realize.

Back by popular demand, here’s another collection of trust lessons from my own most humbling moments.A few weeks ago I shared about the time I was guilty of three bad business development habits for which I passionately admonish others, the time I wasn’t asked back to speak at a big conference, and the time I managed my own reactiveness to a colleague really poorly.