It seems that in our lives of project management, we have picked
up some bad habits in an effort to increase the speed
and efficiency of our communications. How about slowing
down long enough to follow a few more simple rules
such as:
- Return emails within the same time you
would a phone call – 24
hours is a good rule of thumb.
- Check for punctuation, spelling, and grammatical
errors – set
your spell check on automatic so that each email is
checked before it can be sent.
- Proof read your message before hitting the “Send” button – if
you are responding emotionally, don’t put a name in the “To” section
and wait to send it after re-reading later in the day
or the next morning.
- Use a font that is professional, with a neutral
look – choose
something that is easy to read such as New Times Roman
or Ariel.
- When writing instructions or emphasizing important
points, number the instructions and bullet the key
points – this
makes it much easier to read especially when there
is a good deal of information.
- When adding attachments, advise the reader
and provide a brief description of the document – and don’t
forget to attach the document before sending!
- Bold critical information such as deadlines
or dates and times of events – don’t bold or use
capital letters in the entire email as this is considered “screaming”.
- Use sentence case style with appropriate capital
letters and lower case – again this makes it much easier
on the reader.
Give it a shot and get started today. Stop the email madness
on your project team by implementing a few simple rules that
will make life easier for everyone!
Jayne Gnadt is the Manager of North American Operations for
MINDAVATION, a company providing project management training
and consulting services, keynote presentations, leadership workshops
and team building programs across the globe. Mindavation can
be reached via the web at WWW.MINDAVATION.COM or by calling 866-888-MIND
(6463).
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