It’s spooky season. All Hallows’ Eve. Time for pagan rituals, candy and costumes.   

Will you be a ghost or a ghoster? Choose the former and you’ll likely be in the minority; the latter, the majority. 

Ghosting is one of my perennial bugbears. 

I should be clear that it’s not an irritant because I (or we) should expect responses from every email. We should not. We are all busy. We are being emailed, socialed, texted and slacked to death. We have to make choices about where and what we engage with. 

When I get annoyed is when communicators don’t communicate. It’s like ghosts who don’t make themselves available for a seance. Come on… we can do better.     

Once upon a time it was simpler. We were not living in an everything-everywhere-all-at-once world. When I was growing up in the U.K. we had three channels on TV, no internet, snail mail, we used maps to get around. Of course, that was a long time ago. 

When I first started my career, I remember reading a newsletter for PR people that highlighted an interesting comparison: people who had clean desks and processed everything that came across them, and people who had messy desks and who piled documents up but knew where everything was despite the apparent chaos. 

The point was one approach was not inherently right and the other wrong. There are, in fact, a range of styles and approaches we all have to manage for work. The same is true when it comes to ghosting. If we get unsolicited emails or messages on LinkedIn, we will make conscious choices about whether or not to respond. 

When someone we know reaches out, we get a client request or a question from a journalist, there’s an additional level of processing that we need to bring to the table: As communicators we have a special responsibility (shock, horror!) to communicate. If we talk the label, we must walk it. 

While it may sound obvious, and most will argue they communicate on the things and with the people that matter, from my experience I know this is not always the case. 

For some, “I’m too busy”… to set up a call, to respond in a timely manner or at all, is a default. When you are a communicator no one should be surprised that this rankles. When you are a manager of people in a corporate communications department or agency, it’s a problem. 

The most effective communicators manage to get things done, and be responsive. They are efficient because they can walk and chew gum at the same time, they know that it’s not just about them. Being a good communicator should be as much about helping others get on with their work and projects, as it is about you getting on with your work. 

An overly simple message this Halloween would be don’t be a ghost. The more nuanced takeaway – you are a communicator; you will be judged as one every day not just on October 31.