Email: The Proper Habits

Carl is about to send an important letter to a client via U. S. mail. He has taken his time crafting the letter. He preens his fine prose and signs his name. He double checks the mailing address and finally affixes the proper postage and places the letter in his mail bin. One month later Carl comes across a copy of the letter. He notices a typo. He is mortified. In this example most of us would be mortified. Yet, so many of us are sending out important correspondence via email that contains two or more errors – and we don’t think twice about it. Why not?

Email is an extremely valuable communication tool. If used carelessly or overused, however, it can be hazardous, expensive, and cause confusion. Various studies have determined that companies lose anywhere from 2% to 15% of their business from sloppy or incorrect email correspondence. In addition, according to a survey by Forrester Research, approximately 30% of 294 companies they spoke with had dismissed a staff member in the past twelve months for violating email policies. Thirty-eight percent of companies surveyed said they read or analyzed outgoing email messages. These facts highlight that we, and our colleagues, need to be on top of our game when communicating via email.

So how do we stay on top of our email game? Easy, follow these eleven tips for your email peace of mind.

1. Use spell-check and a thesaurus. Certainly you already do this. If not, you are the last person on the planet not to do so. Although spell-check is great, it doesn’t catch everything and, alas, it is pretty dismal with regard to correcting grammar. Needless to say, re-reading and correcting emails prior to sending them is a hallmark of a healthy professional. The next two points also tie in closely to this concept.

2. Print out important client or internal correspondence prior to hitting Send. Perhaps you are saying, ‘Hey, Al Gore would be appalled - I don’t want to waste paper.’ Well, I am sorry to bring out the environmentalist in you, but consider this: man has been reading documents on paper for over 500 years. Our brains have become accustomed to and adept at reading words on parchment. It is only in the past 15 – 20 years that we have begun to read a large amount of text in electronic format. As such, we don’t catch errors as readily in electronic form as we do on paper. If you don’t believe me, try a little test. Next time you have an important email message ready to send, print it out and thoroughly review it. I will be stunned if you don’t find at least one typo and a sentence or two that you reconstruct.

3. Find a ‘proof buddy’ to review important correspondence. There is nothing wrong with having another set of eyeballs review important correspondence. An objective opinion will help you confirm that your message will be interpreted in the manner that you intend.

4. Do not use email as your only channel of communication. Yes, it is easy and quick. But if you get too informal or use it exclusively to communicate with others, you will become a one-dimensional communicator. Remember: email carries no auditory tone of voice or body language.

5. Be Succinct. Emails longer than a paragraph or two are typically not read right away. Also, use good judgment with regard to when it is time to take your fingers off the keyboard and move them to the dial pad. After two or three email iterations, especially if multiple people are involved, it is probably time to pick up the phone and talk to someone.

6. Have a clear message. As much as possible, have the subject line describe the true topic of your email. Also, decode your message and seek to avoid acronyms that might be confusing to part of your audience. In other words, say what you mean or really want to see happen.

7. Only copy relevant team members. Be certain about who really needs to be on the "to:" and the "cc:" line. Too often people cc far too many people. This creates confusion – for uninterested parties, as well as for relevant receivers.

8. Encourage questions or feedback. By welcoming thoughts and opinions you show that you are open-minded and collaborative.

9. Take a breath and control your anger. Emails that contain anger and/or sarcasm are rarely productive. Rather than send them, take a deep breath and a short break and attempt to calm down. Then, pick up the phone or make a personal visit. If you are upset, an email message is typically not the best means of communication.

10. Keep jokes to a minimum. I love to laugh – we all do. Email is a great way to quickly distribute fun and fanciful items – after hours. During business hours however, play it fairly straight. Sending too many jokes can dilute the fact that you are a serious professional.

11. Plan time for emails. It is easy to retrieve and send quick emails on the fly. However, many of us receive requests that take some thought or action prior to responding. Build some time into each day that is dedicated to email correspondence. Often times, just the act of allocating a portion of your day to email can reduce the stresses and strains you experience.

Well there you have it, eleven habits that, if followed, could very well give people the perception that you are an electronic-communication genius. Now, where did I place that tasty YouTube sniglet?

Put Me In Coach

Welcome to the exciting conclusion of Put Me In Coach. During part one, we covered two of the four major areas that lead to coaching success. This entry details the remaining items that will assist leaders in becoming great coaches.

#3 Growing People
The cornerstone of coaching is the ability to develop talent. It is not easy, but the best coaches I know embrace the following:

1. Coaching is constant. Developing people is not an occasional or one-time event. Rather, coaching is an activity that powerful leaders do every day. If you want your team to consistently perform at a high level, make certain you observe behaviors and proactively coach daily.

2. Ownership. It is the coach’s responsibility to drive development activities. While team members certainly have a huge stake, the learning process should be driven and monitored by the coach.

3. Have a plan. The creation and sharing of a formal coaching plan is a crucial step in the development process. It is a compliment to the casual coaching that you offer each day.

4. Partnership. Once a formal coaching plan has been discussed with a team member it is important to seek their buy-in. You may ask them to demonstrate their commitment by signing the coaching plan and/or craft a summary of each coaching session.

5. Tailor. While you may possess a particular coaching style, a good coach is often a chameleon. It may be necessary for you adjust your coaching style so that it fits seamlessly with a team member’s personality, skill level, experience, and potential. More than likely the members of your team have varied levels of the above traits. As such, their needs will call for you to adjust your approach in order to be the most effective coach for them.

6. Time Allocation. It is a brutal reality, but a coach only has so much time to offer team members. As such, it is critical that coaches ‘force rank’ team members in order to clearly understand who the high performers are and who possesses high potential. By allocating the lion’s share of your time to these categories you will be maximizing your team’s potential results. Note: spending an unfair share of your time coaching underperformers is unfair to the people who are producing and will ultimately stunt the results that your team will realize. Picture a basketball game: who does the coach talk with most during the game, the people on the bench or the people scoring the points?

#4 Communication & Feedback
The hallmark of an effective coach is their ability to deliver feedback that sticks. In addition, it takes discipline, organization, and solid observation skills to be able to offer feedback on a regular basis. There are six steps to consider in this part of the process:

1. Ask and tell. The first step in delivering feedback is to ask team members what they expect to receive. Also, if you have a preferred style or method, share your thoughts with the people you coach. Let them know what to expect from you, and tell them what kind of behavior and results you expect.

2. Catch people doing something right! It is our strengths that make us successful. As such, be observant of other’s strengths, best practices, and achievements. Once positive behaviors or outcomes have been observed, promptly give the team member positive reinforcement.

3. Mind the math. My experience has shown that people tend to respond to feedback that is slanted to the positive. A ratio to keep in mind is three pieces of positive feedback to every one piece of constructive feedback. Now, if someone has totally screwed up, it certainly is appropriate to delve more heavily into the constructive. Under normal circumstances, however, a 3:1 ratio (positive to constructive) works nicely.

4. Tone & Body Language. It is critical that the tone of voice and body language that you use while coaching is consistent with the message that you are delivering. Good eye contact, a confident tone, and open body language, coupled with the appropriate words and timing can add up to a powerful coaching lesson that deeply resonates with a team member.

5. Be specific. Saying ‘good job’ or ‘please do better next time’ to someone has minimal impact. Yes, it lets them know that you are aware of their performance, but it does not give them something specific to repeat or correct. As such, seek to highlight specific behaviors that team members exhibit, as well as the specific results they achieve. If you deliver constructive feedback make certain that you also describe the correct behavior and enhanced results you expect.

6. Raise the bar. High performing professionals enjoy being challenged. Do not hesitate to challenge team members to perform at a higher level. Something to consider is asking the people you coach to seek to be incrementally better today than they were yesterday. Building a mindset of continuous, incremental improvement can lead to a culture that is focused on quality and performance.