A just-released study by the Center for Professional Excellence finds that, for the second year in a row, students aren’t making the grade as professionals in the workplace. Who was surveyed? Not only business leaders and HR professionals nationwide, but also current college students and recent graduates from around the country. Survey-takers said that less [...]
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Imagine you are surrounded by your co-workers, clients, and competition. What – and how much – would you say? Apply this same principle to your emails. If you wouldn’t say it out loud to these folks, don’t write it in an email! Keep the tone of your emails professional, the content straightforward, and you could [...]
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Email works best with few flourishes. Keep your message and intent clear by avoiding emoticons, exclamation points, unusual fonts or stationery, and personal sayings. Text-style abbreviations and acronyms work only when the recipient knows what they stand for. Caps can be used to emphasize positive words only (“Your presentation was GREAT”, not “You are an [...]
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Don’t overuse the Cc feature when emailing. Ask yourself – does this person really need a copy of this? Cc too many people and nothing gets done. Recipients can get confused as to who is supposed to take action. And superiors don’t want to be CC’d on everything you send – they get too much [...]
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Include an “executive summary” whenever you forward an email. People are busy and can’t always take the time to read through the entire message and then guess what you want them to do about it. Try to say more than “FYI”. Instead try – “Laura, I’m forwarding this to you from Brad. Please review his [...]
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Email subject lines should be clear, concise, and descriptive. Shoot for a max of six words. Instead of “Today’s meeting”, write “Pls. Review; today’s meeting agenda”. “3rd Quarter sales up 15%” is better than “Quarterly Results”. Intrigue the reader, make them think “I’ve got to read this!”
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