Quick Tips: Focus Your Email

06/03/24 • 4 min

Your lead and follow coaching tip for today is Focus your email.

I recently received an auto-responder email message from a colleague that read, and I’m not kidding about this, QUOTE “I’m out of the office this week, and your message will be deleted. If you’d like a response, please re-send your message after next Monday when I return.” UNQUOTE

Your message will be deleted.

This is probably the most extreme example I’ve seen of email management, but I share it to illustrate the point. We are all drowning in an excessive flood of email. You probably receive hundreds of messages a week, maybe hundreds a day, and there’s no way you can read them all.

In fact, in addition to the latest spam blockers and content filters, there is still a certain amount of time and effort required to figure out what email you need to read, before you actually read any of it.

So, knowing this situation, you can make it easier for your coworkers to read and respond to your messages with a couple of guidelines. These won’t work in all situations, but they will cover you for the majority of everyday work exchanges.

First, whenever possible, follow the rule of one topic per message. This makes it easy for people to organize your message by category and especially by time sensitivity. If you ask someone for two pieces of information, one of which you need today and the other of which you need next week, that makes your message harder to organize and you’ll probably get either one or neither of your questions answered. If you send them separately, not only is each one shorter, which is almost always better, but the person will have an easier time mentally dropping them into the appropriate buckets, and responding to them in the appropriate time-frame.

Second, if you do have several related questions pertaining to the same project or the same deadline, use a numbered list so that your reader can more quickly and easily take in what you are asking. You’ll often get an itemized response in return, following your original list, which also makes it easier for you.

Third, whenever possible, keep your messages to five sentences or less, stating your purpose, your request, and any time constraints. If you have additional relevant reference material, attach them or list them below your main message, separated by an asterisk or some other obvious character. Too much text is overwhelming, and people will. not. read it, especially if it’s not necessary. There is definitely a skill to writing concisely, and it’s most definitely a valuable one that you want to have no matter what your work environment. I promise that once you start restricting yourself to five sentences, it will get easier and easier.

And finally, fourth, being crisp and focused does not mean being rude. It’s still important to be polite and positive even while you avoid unnecessary explanations or “filler” language. Remember to use the person’s name at the top of your message, and include a thank you at the end. Here’s a quick tip within a tip: include Thank you, or Thanks in your automatic signature.

Try this out, experiment, and let me know how it goes!

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Your lead and follow coaching tip for today is Focus your email.

Your message will be deleted.

Try this out, experiment, and let me know how it goes!

Support the show

Previous Episode

Leading, Following, and Polarity Thinking - Lindsay Burr

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Lindsay Burr shares the tools of Polarity ThinkingTM as a way to understand, identify, and refine leadership and followership dynamics in any group or organization. Lindsay is CEO of the Yarbrough Group and based in Washington, DC. Her career has focused on helping people clearly see and then navigate the systems that they're in. She has worked in international political spaces and in US policy and elections, and in all of her work over the last 15 years she has used Polarity Theory, a tool developed by Barry Johnson and expanded by multiple authors. Lindsay uses her knowledge of polarity thinking to help individuals, groups, and organizations achieve goals that are tied to meaningful work.

“When we think of leadership and followership as two positives that work together, you get so much more richness.”

“There are times when a leader will hold one pole, and the followers will hold another pole.”

“As soon as it’s a “but” or an “either/or,” then it sets up a conflict. As long as everyone knows it’s both/and, then you can figure out how much you need of each one for success.”

“If you have something you’ve overdone, when you find the other side of the pole, then you know how to right yourself.”

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Episode References
Global Followership Conference
http://www.followershipconference.com

4-Day Training with Lindsay at the CPSI Conference June 23-27, 2024
https://cpsiconference.com/

Polarity Map Download (scroll down to the bottom of the page)
https://www.yarbgroup.com/publications

S2 E 14 - Simultaneous Leading and Following in Complex Organizations - Chris Fuzie
https://leadfollow.buzzsprout.com/1735834/13112770-simultaneous-leading-and-following-in-complex-organizations-chris-fuzie
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsayyburr/

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Next Episode

Followership at the Strategic Level – Paul McGachey

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Paul McGachey shares his theoretical research on Ira Chaleff's Courageous Follower model plus lots of terrific examples from his own professional work demonstrating what it takes to follow courageously at the higher levels of an organization, whether that's in the US military or in the business sector. Paul is a scholar-practitioner with 18 years of experience in the United States military and is currently pursuing a PhD in Education and Human Resources at Colorado State University. His primary research interests are followership and scenario planning, a tool that uses multiple future scenarios to drive strategic action and decision-making.

“The follower has to see themselves as an active participant in the organization.”

“If you’re in a relationship with a leader who does not want your feedback, you need to resist the urge to take a passive role, just because that’s how the leader or the organization sees you.”

“You need to build that leader-follower relationship and that’s going to be built on trust and results over time.”

“As you build a follower role orientation within yourself and within your organization, you’re going to gain more influence over your leader.”

“Scenario planning has been very successful at changing mental models.”

“Regardless of whether you have input in the vision, you have direct action in the implementation and culture of the organization.”

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