The art of being ignored...and what to do about it

Alysha Khan • public
• 1 min read

We've all been there.

You've created a killer deck, the perfect professionally friendly Slack reminder, a Jira ticket response worthy of Shakespeare aaaaannnddd, you get ignored.

People are clearly not paying attention during your presentation.

Despite your Slack reminders, you still have to chase people down for your end of week recap.

And the stakeholder asks the exact same question again over email despite your incredibly thorough Jira ticket response.

Being ignored is a professional reality. This is especially true for Marketing Ops teams because we are often an overlooked function to begin with.

The key to handling this is:

  • Not taking it personally
  • Being prepared to repeat yourself (again and again and again).

I know because I have been on both sides of this equation.

As the second-in-command at an agency that is rapidly scaling, my brain can literally only hold so much information. Something has to give and I'm self-aware enough to create systems around me to support me when I can't support myself.

But being that person has also helped me be a better consultant and better at enforcing process for my stakeholders.

Here are my 3 favorite tips to handle repetitive communications:

  • I am militant about creating self-serve documentation. Why answer the same question a million times when you can just send someone a link?
  • For my busier stakeholders, I often schedule 15 minute sync to personally update certain folks or just force them to give me what I need on a call.
  • I create a rough communication plan to make sure I am hitting every communication channel available to me. I drop a reminder in everywhere the powers that be will let me.

And most importantly, I continually remind myself that they aren't ignoring me on purpose. They are just like me. Swamped, overwhelmed and just trying their best to keep their heads above water.

See you next week,

🫶🏽 Alysha

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