Email Bomb

The email bomb is something that companies have to take into consideration and give appropriate training. I recently had a situation where I was communicating through email and trying to be as clear as possible. The problem like I mentioned in previous emails is people do not proof read what they are sending before they hit the send button. I was recently amused by an email that literally had 10 different messages in 4 sentences. I wanted to respond by stating can you please proof read and resend? Of course we all have a tendency to go through things very quickly, misspell words, and my favorite use the reply to all function. Here are a few tips when crafting an email that will help minimize the confusion that might take place.

• Only include the people on the email who need to be included this is not the right time to show your boss you can handle conflicts
• Subject / Title should reflect the actually information that is included in the email
• Address the audience like it is a formal letter, ex. Brad,
• Give specific action items in the email, ex. I need a response by Monday the 3rd at 5pm.
• Closing, ex. Thanks for your help,
• Name & Contact information
• Spell Check and reread before you hit send.

Sure this does not look like rocket science and it is very simple. If you do this every time you will find conversations are much easier to have and the communication struggle can be eliminated.