Great Communication Skills

We live in a real time world. People, things and activities are moving quickly. But, that shouldn't give us a reason not to communicate. Lately, I'm amazed at the lack of communication and courtesy given forth from people.

eMail complicates the situation, because the communication is asynchronous. You can send an email to someone, and there isn't a guarantee they actually receive it, so it may be common to re-send or remind someone. What irks me about this, is that I know in 90% of the cases, the email has been received and is ignored. Why? My suspicion is that the receiver:

1. doesn't have a good answer
2. is extraordinarily busy and doesn't have time or energy to communicate
3. doesn't consider your communique important enough to warrant a response
4. doesn't like the answer they have to give, and hopes you will just "go away"

NONE of these are acceptable excuses in my book. When one receives an email from another, and I'm not talking about SPAM here, or a voice mail, physical letter, IM, or other communication, the responsible option is to reply. Put your answer out there, or indicate you are too busy to deal with a situation at this point. The above behavior is just rude. I make it my duty to consider communication an important aspect of my business and life. I check my SPAM folder daily and clean it out to ensure I don't miss a communication from a client. And, I'm not afraid to communicate bad news where it is required. I try to help my clients behave the same.

Simple ... (imho)