Win Your Day - Your phone can degrade trust

June 25

by Steve Gilbert

“When we break eye contact to check our phones, we degrade trust. Let’s keep our phones away from meals and meetings.”
-- Simon Sinek

There is a difference between using your smartphone and being used by your smartphone.

Your smartphone is a wonderful tool to use, but it can also be an addiction that reduces your productivity, weakens relationships and makes you more susceptible to depression.

The masterful Simon Sinek has a few pieces of advice for using your smartphone:

-- Don't keep your phone by your bed at night
You don't want your phone to be the first thing you check when you wake up in the morning. Why? Because you're letting other people's texts/emails/tweets/news set the tone for your day instead of starting things off the way you want to.

-- Don't keep your phone on the table when you're talking to a friend or business colleague
If you're constantly checking your phone while you're with someone else what you are basically telling that person is, "What you're saying to me is not as important as what might be coming through my phone right now."

-- No cell phones in conference rooms
An interesting point that Sinek makes is that you don't even want people to be checking their phones before a meeting. When we're sitting in a conference room waiting for a meeting to start we can have conversations with our co-workers. It's when we can learn about them and bond. Those priceless interactions can't happen if we're all scrolling through our phones.

-- Don't fill every empty moment with your phone
A friend gets up to go to the bathroom while you're at lunch and the first thing you do is check your phone because heaven forbid you spend a few minutes just looking around the restaurant. You're in line at the grocery store and you start scrolling through email. What you're depriving yourself of are moments where your mind can wander and new ideas and breakthroughs can occur.

Today, be aware of how often you are checking your smartphone. Ask yourself if you're using technology or if technology is using you.

Win Your Day!
Steve Gilbert