Above and Beyond the Call of Email

Electronic mail as a form of communication is fast, furious and ubiquitous. It is a tool like any other. If used appropriately it can be a very constructive tool, and if used inappropriately it can also be very destructive.

When I talk to most working professionals there is an almost universal agreement as to how to use email and you can find a list of these links at pcmag.com or about.com.

Simply in the last week, I had three different sessions with clients that dealt with the contents of emails they both received and sent.

LOST IN THE CROWD

My first client, a person who is fully aware of his preference for interacting more with his Mac than with people, tends to use email for the majority of his communication. He fully admits he would rather send an email than knock on his colleague's door, which is less than a meters distance from his office.

Email does simplify his life in some ways, but can also cause more complications. The particular issue that this client brought up was the fact that sometimes his colleagues did not follow up promptly on a request he sent via email. He said that it really frustrated him, and that he thought it was quite unprofessional of them to not reply.

I asked what he did to follow through. He replied, 'I don't follow through with them. I wait for their reply. I've sent them the email. They have it. The ball is in their court.'

He believed that his job was finished once he hit the send key. It was up to his colleague to hit the ball back into his court so the game could continue. As we talked through the issue, he realized that email was not much different than any other form of communication. People sometimes lose track of a conversation or a request. Especially, when we think about how much we are inundated with a constant flow of information from every direction. Sometimes, even as professional as we might be, some things simply fall off our mental radar.

Most professionals I work with can receive any where from 50 to 200 emails (sometimes even more) in a day. Is it any wonder why an email can get buried and soon forgotten?

Whether it is learning a new skill or acquiring new knowledge repetition is the key. Without some form of repetition the skill or the knowledge will simply fade to make room for more present and current input. With this in mind, my client grudgingly agreed that he has to sometimes follow up with a second email or pick up the (dreaded) phone to see how matters are progressing.

HIDDEN MESSAGES AND ASSUMPTIONS

It is generally agreed that emails primary purpose should be to used to send information or to make simple requests. Issues that are very detailed or of a sensitive matter should be saved for face-to-face or for the phone. As often is the case, these two ends of the same spectrum are blurred.

People have this fascinating tendency to look at something to see if there is deeper meaning, a curious pattern or some hidden message.

Well this phenomenon is also true for emails. We tend to assign meaning to the words that are flashed up on our screens. That is, we tend to make an assumption about the intent of the person who wrote the email. Sometimes our assumptions may be right on the mark, and other times it might be completely off target. Since our behavior, our reactions and our decisions are based on our assumptions, we need to take care that the assumptions we are making are based in reality.

If we assume by the words that we read in an email that the sender is out to get us in one form or another, we will tend to react defensively and maybe aggressively. It is human nature to right a wrong. The question is: what if we are trying to right a wrong that was never made in the first place? I think we have all been down this road. For most of us the foolishness or the embarrassment that results is a good wake-up call for us to be more cautious the next time we react before we can verify our assumption.

When writing an email brevity and specificity are the keys. When reading an email if something seems off or is not nonsensical, ask for clarity.

We are all at fault for using email above and beyond it's original call.