There may be email that you look forward to opening, email from friends or family who find it a fast, convenient and affordable way to connect with you from different parts of the city or from different parts of the world. There may even be email at work that you are eager to read, email that contains information you need when you need it without requiring too large an investment of your time. Wouldn’t you like other people to look forward to reading the email you send? In five practical steps, you can improve the odds that the email you send will be welcome and effective.
1. Begin by knowing the difference between personal email and email sent at work. The difference is absolute. Whether you are writing to a client, a colleague or your boss, email sent at work is part of your work performance. It needs to express your personality as it exists within the context of your job: an email should use the kind of language and project the kind of image that you would use during any other important work function. Think about how you behave when you are at your best at work. Consider the kind of working relationships that you would like to have with a range of people while you are at work. Decide before you begin that even a very short email is a kind of business card - a written representation of who you are during your working day.
2. Just as you decide how to dress at work by noticing what other people are wearing, you need to decide how email works by looking at great examples. If you are new to writing email on the job, ask for examples. Whenever someone sends you email, notice the impression it makes on you. If it makes a strongly positive impression, spend a little more attention noticing how it does that. How does an email that works look on the screen? How long or short is it? What’s in the subject line and how does it draw your eye to key pieces of information? Where does it tell you why you are reading it and what you need to do next? Be curious about why some email is effective and some is a waste of time.
3. Before you begin to draft an email, decide exactly what response you want. If you do not know what feedback you expect, you will not recognize what works when it does work. Notice whether you want your reader to learn something, to think something or to do something. When will you know that you have been successful? While email can have real staying power (sometimes circulating far past the time or audience we expect), most email has only a few seconds to catch someone’s attention and make a difference. Good writers know exactly what feedback will tell them they have accomplished their purpose.
4. Now put yourself at your reader’s computer. It is generally safe to assume that readers are busy, that they are used to skimming through data that appears on their screen, and that they have other things on their mind as they look through their inbox. You might have more specific information about the personality, preferences and pressures of the reader you have in mind. Imagine for a moment that you are playing that person in a television show or movie. What makes them click to open your email, and what catches their attention when they do? Use this information to draft a subject line that will give the reader what s/he needs (not necessarily what you need). Now put together a draft of the email that makes it easy for the reader to see why you are writing and what you want.
5. You are clearly too busy to write an email that does not get the result you want. So take some time (a few moments for a short email, longer for a more complicated email) and consider how you can make it easier for the reader to find the key information, agree with it or understand it (depending on your reason for writing) and to quickly reply with exactly what you need. Then take one more look at the email. Does it look as good as you do? Does it sound the way you sound at your best? The email represents you, as much as your behaviour in the workplace represents you. Make sure you like the image it presents.
You might be surprised there are no tips here on spelling, grammar or sentence structure. All of those are part of knowing how you want to present yourself in writing - whatever you are writing. The key to email is to catch someone’s attention quickly and professionally and to be very clear about the feedback you require. In order to do this, you will find that you need to write as correctly as you can. Most importantly, you need to know what your reader will expect, what you want, and how you want to be perceived.
Linda Ferguson, Ph.D. is a senior partner at NLP Canada Training Inc. in Toronto, Canada. With her partner, Chris Keeler, Linda develops training that allows people to experience stronger integrity and better results. Clients experience rapid, sustainable change and long-term learning about how their thinking drives success. Drawing on fields from the arts to business to neuroscience, NLP Canada Training Inc. provides spring-training for the mind: clients sharpen their perceptions, focus their efforts, and become better at knowing what they want and communicating to get it. Read more from Linda at http://www.nlpcanada.com or http://www.squidoo.com/integratedthinking or http://www.nlpcanadatraining.blogspot.com
Tags: 5 steps, boss, business card, colleague, email works, job, knowing, look forward, odds, personality, read email, strongly, subject line, work function, work performance, working day, working relationships, written representation
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