Okay, you are super busy
or you are down to your last email before heading home.
Maybe it’s first thing in the morning, you have a full
in box to read and handle, all before your meeting
starts in 10 minutes. It’s easy to be in a rush and
dismiss the little things, however…
…have you ever thought how
your email looked from a receiver’s viewpoint? Of
course you have, every day, haven’t you? It is so easy
in our fast-paced lives to let the little things go.
When you receive a poorly
formatted email and you don’t know where each paragraph
starts or finishes -- the thoughts are scattered and
jumbled -- here’s the reader’s self chatter in action:
“What the heck, it’ll take me hours to decipher this. I
don’t have time for this. Can’t X be respectful? I’ll
just pretend I didn’t get it and maybe their follow-up
email will be clearer.” Click and delete. Of course,
you have never done this – chuckle.
By chance, your next email
receiver is nicer and doesn’t delete and pretend. They
just move onto the next email and leave yours for the
“someday in the future” stack. And maybe it will or
will not ever be answered. Their response may even miss
your point entirely or only provide feedback to half of
the items that need addressing.
If you have difficulty
getting quick responses or any response at all, the
receiver could be sending you a silent message. They
could feel that you are wasting their time or do want to
educate you on common email courtesies.
Recently, after receiving
ten emails in one day from separate independent
professionals, with their personal pronouns “i’s” in
lower case besides other items. I asked them to
enlighten me about their lax protocols. I received a
wave of negative responses. In order to keep this a
family-available article, here are a few responses
cleaned up: “i don’t have time, too many emails.” A few
others added, “i do it to everyone.” I particularly
loved the “to” in the last two emails – I do it “to”
everyone.
A human resource director
client shared with me that every day she deletes ten or
twelve applications, about 12% of the total number she
receives daily, that omit common email courtesies. A
majority come from individuals with higher degrees. I
chuckled at the irony. She didn’t and just heavily
sighed. She found it even more serious on the number of
emails she received from recruiters that also lacked
these simple courtesies.
“Don’t Sweat The Small
Stuff” is a book I read a few years ago if I recall
correctly. Normally I wouldn’t care much about the
small stuff either. However, coherent communication,
whether verbal or written, still represents who we are
and shows respect. Using history as an indicator,
communication started and stopped wars.
Recently, I attended a
speaking engagement with Michelle Singletary, author, “7
Money Mantras,” and columnist, The Color of Money, for
the Washington Post. In the presentation, she
mentioned several times, “You had better sweat the small
stuff.” Of course, her reference was to money. Yet, it
was an important point. It takes pennies to develop
into dollars, dollars to add up to ten, and so on up the
monetary ladder. Doesn’t it hold true that if we leave
out the small common courtesies and respect in emails,
will it not block the dollars – directly or indirectly?
When thinking over the
given benefits for taking care of the “small stuff” in
emails, here are three powerful mantras:
* A professional
email attracts a professional response.
* When you respect other people’s time, they
usually will respect yours.
* When communication is thought through and clear,
the chances increase significantly that the response
will be returned in the same manner. Stinkin’
thinking attracts the same.
10 Simple Courtesies,
gathered from reading 2,000 emails, and feedback from
the human resource director:
-
Focus on one topic per
email. Keep the email simple so the receiver can
focus in fast and easy. This improves the chance of
a faster response, maybe any response. If you write
to someone regularly, ask what he or she prefers.
-
An appropriate subject
line will help reduce accidental deletion. It will
also help locate that specific email faster if
needed. When forwarding or responding, change the
subject line to reflect your response. You can also
add your first name in the subject line as an added
identifier. I like to start mine with: “Personal
note from Catherine” or follow after the subject
with: “From Catherine.” If you are dealing with
deadlines add: “Please respond by.”
-
Keep each paragraph to
one thought even if the paragraph turns out to be
one fragmented sentence. You will want to limit
email paragraphs to six sentences. A natural way of
reading from a computer screen is with a scan-read
process. Screen reading dries out the eyes and
reduces blinking causing eyestrain.
-
Add subheader titles
into the email when more than three paragraphs are
in the email or more than three paragraphs follow
the subheader. You can add subheaders as you type
or while rereading. This keeps the eyes moving fast
and easy. It also allows the mind to shift from
topic to topic without developing cobwebs.
-
Re-read your email no
matter how long or short. We always think faster
than our fingers can type. Thus, what is typed
isn’t always what was swarming around in our mind.
-
Does the subject flow
or was it choppy? Flow in an email isn’t the same
as flow from one chapter in a book to another. Flow
allows the reader to easily transition and
comprehend the material. If choppy, the reader
might daydream or take a break and formulate a
different answer that might not fit the material,
creating additional emails on your part to clarify.
Frequent places to check for flow in your material
are where you start or stop a message or
submessage.
-
Is there any type of
priority or order needed to follow so that the
receiver follows along with the material? Are there
steps or information that build on the previous
message? Before you can pour a glass of milk you
might want buy the milk – chuckle. When we are
extremely familiar with how to do something, it’s
easy to write past something, a common mishap by IT
experts. Do you know the receiver and their level
of knowledge or experience on the topic? My
favorite saying is, “When in doubt, write it out.”
-
For goodness sake,
turn on the spell check feature on. If you want to
write pronouns in small letters, at least let spell
check catch them for you.
-
Who are you? You
would think that this one was common sense, at least
I did. Yet, every week I receive 10-15 emails
asking me a general question without telling me who
they are or giving me some background. They are
huge, open-ended questions that would take me years
to answer. This falls into the lack of respect
category.
-
What do you need or
want? Forwarding an email that doesn’t ask for what
you need makes the receiver try to guess. Not
cool. Speak up, don’t be shy. If you take
rejection personally, hire a life coach to work on
this with you. Statements don’t automatically ask
anything. Questions do. My dad had a saying,
“Squeaky wheel gets the grease. If you can’t ask,
squeak somewhere else. I can’t guess what type of
oil you need.” A little harsh yet it makes its
point. Go ahead and ask, and no this isn’t a
reflection on you.
We all
believe we have good communication skills. There could
be some real surprises when you start practicing these
10 Simple Courtesies. Take your time, slow down in
order to speed up. Tackle it slowly so that the lessons
stick. You will be glad you did. The next email you
send might be to your next boss, client, or forwarded to
the President. You never know. It happened to me and
it could happen to you.
About the
Author:
Catherine Franz is a marketing veteran, a Certified
Business Coach, Certified Teleclass Leader and Trainer,
speaker, author, and Master Attraction Practitioner.
Business client’s include professional firms,
restaurants, retail stores, coaches, employees using
writing for advancement, and independent professionals
across the globe, i.e., the USA, the United Kingdom,
Europe, Australia and New Zealand. For daily marketing
tips and electronic newsletters on marketing, Universal
Laws of Attraction, and marketing writing/copywriting.
