Your Accessibility

Being available for your team is of paramount importance and in this age of technology there is no reason for you to be too far from a team member needing your input or you needing theirs. If you are never in your office you make it quite difficult for people to approach you other than e-mail. This means you will miss opportunities to solve one of their issues or at the very least lose an opportunity to solve one of yours. You also distance yourself from your team.

Try to lay out ground rules for your availability like being there from 7:00 to 8:00AM on Tuesdays just for walk-ins. Another good thing to do is to provide a communications preference list.

Here are my preferences (in order):

1. E-mail (routine communication)
2. Office Visit (always welcome, will announce my best times)
3. Sametime
4. Office Phone
5. Cell Phone
6. Home Phone