Daily Career Connection

How do you feel about your e-mail inbox at work? Does it overwhelm you? Does that feeling have anything to do with the people who sent you the messages? Are they long, unclear, and uninformative? And are you ever guilty of this offense? Your ability to communicate has a huge impact on your career. Here are some quick tips on how to improve your e-communication:

• Get to the Point: As a reporter my stories were typically no longer than 90 seconds. As a professional speaker, I might speak for 60 minutes but that talk is made up of many points and short stories. Effective e-mail demands brevity. People don’t enjoy reading off a computer screen so you need to quickly get to the point. Use bullet points or highlight key words that can help your reader understand what you’re saying. Be direct in your copy. E-mail does not require flowery language and less is more.

• Wait to Hit Send: Read through your message. Are your thoughts clear and to the point and are there any extra words that you can remove? Your communication is a refection of your work. If you don’t proofread your message (even reading it out loud to yourself), then you’re telling you coworkers that you don’t mind sending them mistakes or leaving them confused. That could be electronic career suicide.

• Is it Confidential: With the touch of a button, anything you write can be forwarded to someone else. Don’t assume the person you’re sending the message to will show discretion as they may be multi-tasking as they read it. If your message includes any kind of criticism, then you should flag it as confidential and write the word, “confidential,” at the top of the message in bold type. And if your topic is serious or a personal opinion that could get you into trouble, you may want to rely on old-fashioned person-to-person communication rather than e-mail.

• Are You a “Reply” Junkie: Do you feel that you have to reply to an e-mail in seconds? Can your communication be improved if you wait a little while before replying? There’s nothing wrong with sending a quick reply that says, “Your questions are important to me. I’ll respond to them thoroughly later in the day.”

• Watch Your Tone: Your reader doesn’t know your mood when you write. Avoid things like all caps (MAKES YOU SEEM ANGRY) or all lower case letters (makes you seem like you’re 12 years old.