There are a number of critical business skills that are all too often overlooked in school, training, and in practice. People know when others are good at their jobs, but often can not explain why. Each Monday (ok, it is Tuesday) I will tackle one of these skills. This week: Writing the Perfect Email.
The key to the perfect email is keeping it to one topic per email. Have more than one topic to cover? Send multiple emails. No one wants to read your stream of consciousness or try to figure out what is important and what they need to do when they are finished reading the email.
Now that you are down to one topic, how to do you get your point across? First, put the point in the subject line. This is the office, not a frat party. "Hey" is not an acceptable introduction. Indicate in the subject if action or decisions are needed. Desirable subject lines are "Production issues: Decision Needed"; "Project Status for Week Ending 5/6"; "Draft of EEO Brief--Please Review". If you can get your entire point across in the subject line, do it.
Don't ramble. Get to the point. Use bullets.
Just like in 9th grade English class, grammar and spelling count. If a manager or client has to spend more than a second trying to figure out what you meant to say, you are wasting their time. And it makes you look incompetent.
Finally, don't surprise your recipient. Emails should not contain unexpected news. If your email contains a juicy nugget, pick up the phone and call the recipient. Talk through the issue and the impact, then send the email as follow up.
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