Email should not replace face to face interaction Published Oct. 27, 2006 By Chief Master Sgt. Michael Williams 60th Air Mobility Wing command chief TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- "Hi, I haven't received your response to the tasking I sent you and yesterday was the deadline." "I didn't receive a tasking." "Well, I sent you a reminder via email two days ago." How many times have you heard that statement, "I sent you an email." I often wonder how we managed before that brilliant individual developed that electronic human-communication medium, which appears to be the backbone of transmitting communication for our culture. We wonder what happen to face to face leadership. Email replace it, that's what happened. Some of us now operate under the auspices of leadership by email. There was a time when we took a great deal of pride in meeting and placing a face with the voice on the other end of the phone. Those introductions added a personal touch to the relationship. Introductions often times prompted the person to go that extra mile for you during subsequent encounters. Some of you may believe communicating is as simple as pressing the send button and checking to see if you received a read receipt. But OH! If you receive a "Not Read" receipt, leading you to assume the recipient deleted your message without reading it. Those two words instantly catapulted you into a confrontational discussion and in an unpleasant tone, you say, "I see you didn't think my message was important enough for you to read!" If your message was that important, call, travel across the hall or base for a friendly visit. If you're spending the majority of your time retrieving and sending emails you are missing out on the most important aspect of your job, people. I have witnessed people sitting in cubicles no more than ten feet apart from each other having a conversation over email. Too many of us rely very heavily upon email; so much, until we expect or insist on an immediate response to our messages. Word to the wise, not everyone spends the majority of their day checking and responding to email. Is email so important it would cause mission degradation if it went down for a day or two? Email is a great medium for communicating. However, it should be a precursor to a phone call or a face to face follow-up. In today's technological advanced force, we are consistently bombarded by electrons but we don't have to respond as soon as they penetrate our CPU...try checking your mail once or twice a day. Face to face leadership will be imperative as we transition to a more efficient, compact, agile and new Air and Space Force. Okay, I have to go check my blackberry.