Emails...

When Keith Ferrazzi, Writer/Author of 'Never Eat Alone' and Who's Got Your Back' repute says emails are an opportunity to strengthen relationships, I would seriously urge people to give this a very serious thought.

Honestly, how many times have we sent or received a curt one-liner without a formal address and a signature line and compared such email communication to that written in a more formal tone and diction? Which do you think made a more positive and lasting impact? We would be doing injustice to ourselves if we, under the guise of being busy and perennially short of time accept that one-liner or brief messages creates a deeper impact.

I for one, would surely be faulted for writing elaborate emails with a formal beginning and an end, besides the mid-portion text containing the detailed explanation. My supposedly brief and to-the-point notes sent through "Short Message Service" or SMS, also tends to be very verbose and long. For sure, the telecom service providers must be thrilled at my 'not-so-short' messages that more often than not, reaches its maximum character limit, impacting their revenues in a positive sense.

Just a decade back, when I started work in the BPO industry, I copied the email form, written and practiced by clients. There would be no pleasantries and the messages would start and stop abruptly. This was a complete departure from what was followed internally. The client was not complaining and as long as my emails with the client did not get shared or copied internally, I was on a roll.

This caught notice of one fire-brand HR folk and I got a dressing down. I was caught unawares and so much was my surprise, that I was tongue-tied and did not know how to react. Nevertheless, I mustered some courage to defend myself saying that I had picked this style from clients. This irked the person all the more and I was further admonished for not respecting the organizational culture of writing emails in a very formal note and tone. I sulked for a full day before deciding to gather my thoughts together and give the feedback its due attention. I did go on to change my style and there has been no looking back, since.

Here are a couple of tips for developing and building a lasting relationship for mutual benefit.

• It pays to make your subject line catchy, attractive, short and meaningful to the context of your contents. Conversely, never leave a subject line blank as it communicates sloppiness, laziness or a lack of respect for the reader's time. Also, take care to change the subject line if it has a trail of three or more subjects or if the status has altered.
• A slick 'thank you' note at the end of your visit to whomsoever you have met with a mention of a list of things discussed along with a list of things that you wish to achieve with time lines, post your visit is always greatly appreciated. This may also be followed at the end of an important call.
• Nurturing and maintaining relationships is of paramount importance. You may be writing to the same person over and over again; show respect at the beginning with pleasantries and include a salutation or a simple 'thank you' at the end. Read and re-read your emails and edit before sending.
• Replying to emails on your blackberry on the go can be a different challenge altogether. More often than not, emails are read in a hurry, understood partially and replied without giving adequate thought. There is a good chance in giving an incomplete reply with scant regard for language and spelling, giving the message a sloppy look and feel.
• While an email is a great medium to send a compliment and more people must adopt this in their everyday life; one needs to exercise caution. There should be a genuine, from the bottom of your heart compliment and most importantly this message should be a one-on-one. A 'reply all' takes away the charm of the compliment - the focus shifts to self rather than the recipient as it becomes a tool to impress rather than express.
• When using abbreviations or acronyms, be sure your audience has knowledge of the same, else, as a matter of courtesy expand for easy understanding.
• Use blank lines to separate paragraphs and do not use tab key when you start a new paragraph.
• Your writing style says more about you than you realize. Your composition skills are quite reflective of your knowledge and abilities. If you are consistently making typo errors, using unconventional punctuation, spelling words incorrectly and so on, you will not come across as a person who knows what he's doing. Neatness counts!

Lastly, using the inverted pyramid is the best form of writing. Your most important statement should appear in the first paragraph, followed by supporting details.

Cheers!!