Travis Bradberry says there is nothing more disconcerting for meeting participants than to see a member on their smartphone. It’s rude, ignorant and in the long run harmful to careers.
You are annoying your boss and colleagues any time you take your phone out during meetings.
This is according to research by the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.
The researchers also found that if you work with women and people over 40 they are more perturbed by it than everyone else.
This was the result of a survey of 554 full-time working professionals earning above $30,000 and working in organisations with at least 50 employees.
They asked a variety of questions about smartphone use during meetings and found that 86 per cent thought it inappropriate to answer phone calls during meetings.
In addition, 84 per cent thought it inappropriate to write texts or emails during meetings and 66 per cent thought it inappropriate to write texts or emails even during lunches offsite.
The more money people make the less they approve of smartphone use.
The study also found that millennials are three times more likely than those aged more than 40 to think that smartphone use during meetings is okay.
This is ironic considering millennials are highly dependent upon the opinions of their older colleagues for career advancement.
TalentSmart has tested the emotional intelligence of more than a million people worldwide and found that millennials have the lowest self-awareness in the workplace.
This makes them unlikely to see that their smartphone use in meetings is harming their careers.
Why do so many people — especially successful people — find smartphone use in meetings to be inappropriate?
When you take out your phone it shows a lack of respect.
You consider the information on your phone to be more important than the conversation at hand.
You are viewing people outside of the meeting to be more important than those sitting right in front of you.
You are showing a lack of attention at what is going on because you are unable to stay focused on one thing at a time.
You aren’t practising active listening to the meeting when you are on the phone, so no one around you feels heard.
You are like a modern-day Pavlovian dog who responds to the whims of others through the buzz of your phone.
In addition, you don’t understand how ridiculous your behaviour looks to other people.
Finally, you have a lack of social awareness.
You don’t understand how your behaviour affects those around you.
I can’t say I’m surprised by the Marshall School’s findings.
My company coaches leaders using 360 degree assessments that compare their self-perception to how everyone else sees them.
Smartphone use in meetings is one of the most common co-worker complaints.
It’s important to be clear with what you expect of others.
If sharing this article with your team doesn’t end smartphone use in meetings, take a page out of the Old West and put a basket by the conference room door.
The basket will have an image of a smartphone and the message: “Leave your guns at the door”.
*Travis Bradberry is the co-founder of TalentSmart, a provider of emotional intelligence tests, emotional intelligence training, and emotional intelligence certification. He can be contacted at TalentSmart.com.
This article first appeared on the TalentSmart website
