Blending Leadership: Shifting Online Modes As Needed

Yesterday, as I was just sitting down and getting ready to start a call with one colleague, I noticed that a Slack message had come in from another colleague a little earlier. That message was an important one and would certainly require some discussion. I could have tried to engage in a text message exchange on Slack while also having the call with the other colleague, but that would not have served anyone well. I asked the colleague on the call for a few moments while I sent a response message in Slack. I simply asked the person who had messaged me if there was a time later in the morning when we could connect. When it became time to give the surprise issue my full attention, I felt that conversing over text-based chat was not going to be suitable given the topic, and a voice call or video chat could also leave possibilities for misunderstanding. We needed to reach mutual understanding rather quickly. Using a collaborative whiteboard (I used the Explain Everything Slack integration) with voice chat allowed us to talk through the issue while also brainstorming possible solutions.