Adapted from an article by Melissa MacBeth, a Lead Manager at Microsoft.
What you should do!
- Keep all messages short and to the point
- If the message is really important or needs an immediate response, ring or text the person.
- Don’t overuse High Importance!
- Read your message before you push “Send”.
- The “To” block is for the person who needs to action or respond to the message
- The “Cc” line is to keep others informed.
- Limit the number of recipients to those who need to read it. The Manager does not need to get every email.
- Organise content from Most Important to Least.
- State what you want in the Subject line eg Mark: Send the proposal back by Thursday or Marketing Team: Decision needed today.
- Put action items on separate lines; same for questions needing answers.
- Use a signature but keep it simple, short, professional and free of graphics.
- If you are angry, do not send anything. Wait. Do something else. Relax.
- Think carefully about Reply and Reply all. They are very different.