Travis Bradberry* details research that confirms what he believed all along — using your smartphone in meetings is both rude and a danger to your career.
Research from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California has shown how colleagues get annoyed when you produce your phone during meetings.
If you work with women and people over 40 they’re even more irritated by it than everyone else.
The researchers conducted 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 the following.
It’s inappropriate to answer phone calls during meetings (86 per cent agreed).
It’s inappropriate to write texts or emails during meetings (84 per cent).
It’s inappropriate to write texts or emails even during lunches offsite (66 per cent).
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 over 40 to think that smartphone use during meetings is okay.
I’ve 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, and you view people outside of the meeting to be more important than those sitting right in front of you.
You are not paying attention and are unable to stay focused on one thing at a time.
You aren’t practicing active listening, 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.
You don’t understand how ridiculous your behaviour looks to other people and you don’t understand how your behaviour affects those around you.
I can’t say I’m surprised by the findings.
Our company’s app 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.
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 entrance with an image of a smart phone and the message: “Leave your guns at the door.”
*Travis Bradberry is the award-winning co-author of the bestselling book, Emotional Intelligence 2.0, and the co-founder of TalentSmart. He can be contacted at talentsmart.com.
This article first appeared at talentsmart.com.
