The Email Land Mines series continues with three more topics:
- Using Email When You Should Use the Phone or Meet in Person
Email is impersonal and does not convey tone clearly. If you have something sensitive to discuss, pick up the phone or make an appointment.
Don’t conduct complex negotiations by email. Confirming agreements by email is wise, as it provides a paper trail; but for that very reason, avoid using email while terms are still fluid. A deal point that can be resolved in a moment on the telephone could take several emails to sort out. Also, if you really want your dialogue to be confidential, steer clear of email.
As technology insinuates itself more deeply into our communications, it becomes easier to rely on electronic devices to do the heavy lifting of making connections with other people. Often, this is a mistake. Nothing replaces the sound of your voice or the sight of your face when you want to deeply connect with another person.
As one respondent wrote, “Use email to set the appointment, not to do the deal.”
- Missing Nuance
By its nature, email lacks nuance. Thus, we must work hard to discern the feelings behind people’s words and to convey the feelings behind our own. If you don’t want to be perceived as curt or abrupt, add a few pleasant words; they will make your message seem more friendly.
If you’re inclined to be offended or hurt by something in an email, reconsider. Remember that email is a cold medium; the writer might not have meant any harm. Give everyone the benefit of the doubt unless the words themselves are clearly belligerent.
At the same time, indirect requests and agreements can also be buried in the nuances of emails. If you want someone to take action, make a specific request; don’t rely on email nuance to get your message across. It won’t happen. And if you are eliciting or making an agreement, make it explicit, with making specific individuals accountable and setting clear deadlines.
- Sending Misleading or Inaccurate Subject Lines
If the topic of an email chain has changed, change the subject line to mirror the topic being discussed. Do not keep the same email line long after it has become obsolete; doing so raises the risk that someone will forward the entire chain to readers who should not receive it.
Some people say that they prefer to keep the subject line intact so that they can find the email string when they are looking for it. One way to meet this need would be to include the original subject line but add the current subject. Thus, if an email began with the subject line “Committee meeting 1/15 at 1:00” and morphed into a long conversation about the agenda items to be discussed at the meeting, you could write
“1/15 Committee Meeting Agenda Items to be Discussed” in a followup email.
Would you like to have an Email Land Mines presentation in your organization? We offer suggestions for dealing with a wide range of land mines. We also offer presentations on Ten Principles of Successful Email. Contact lizd@worktalk.com or call (310) 396-8303 for more information.