how do you email like a boss in order to become the boss within you you need to
start acting like one behaving like one speaking like one and
in today's or else emailing like one but just as no one
teaches us how to be a boss no one teaches us how to email like one today
I'm walking you through the four steps to email like a boss what's of explorers
Mary Daphne here of myexplearning.com where we believe a richer life begins
with better communication today we're talking about how to write an email like
the bus you are now in my world boss doesn't necessarily mean you're ordering
people around I'm talking about being a boss of who you are and how people
interact with you every form of communication is a way for you to
express your bossdom is an opportunity to act in a way that reflects your
professionalism leadership and clear thinking clear writing is often
forgotten in today's world of texting and broken sentences but it's hard to
overstate just how powerful high quality writing can be in the context of
demonstrating your boss 'dom of course high quality doesn't mean long often it
means the opposite have you ever sent a long email that you toiled over for
hours and hours just to get right only to receive a one sentence response where
it was obvious that that person didn't even read that email if that's not
testament to keeping it short sweet and simple I don't know what is with the
right approach writing great emails shouldn't feel like a slob
should feel like a quick jaunt in the park refreshing and invigorating with
that let's look at the four steps you can take to email like a boss and I
think a couple of these may come as a surprise number one less is best too
often when we write emails we feel a need to include everything and the
kitchen sink in our minds we're thinking the more I put in here the less likely I
am to forget anything and the clearer they'll see what I'm saying now the
problem with this approach is that when you put too much info and jam it into
that email the reader loses track of the point that you're trying to make and
worse yet if it's too long the reader might skim it or just not read it at all
so that'll completely make them miss what you're trying to say so instead
remember the age-old phrase kiss keep it simple silly what's the best way to do
that well before you rate your email take a second to think about what you
are hoping to accomplish with this email this is your mission statement jot it
down on a piece of paper or at the top of your email and you can delete it
later on then as you write your email keep returning to that mission statement
make sure that every single sentence you write is explicitly helping you achieve
that mission statement once you finished writing reread your mission statement
and ruthlessly delete delete delete anything from your email but isn't
directly related to it did you catch yourself going off on a tangent
exit were you making a separate unrelated point save it for a separate
email now don't get me wrong this isn't easy as Mark Twain famously
said I was going to write you a shorter letter but I didn't have the time
but this will help you ensure that the person fully grasps what you're trying
to say and by keeping it shorter it will ensure that they actually read the email
at all number to avoid repetition this is related to the first point which is
that the shorter your email the more likely it is to be read and understood
and a big culprit in this regard is repetition we often feel like we need to
repeat the most important parts of the email a few extra times just to make
sure the point is conveyed the more you say it the more likely they're to
understand it right wrong the thing is when you repeat yourself you're actually
more likely to confuse the reader they'll think wait didn't she just say
that before is she trying to make a separate point here I don't get it
or they might assume that the rest of your email will be similarly repetitive
in that case they'll just stop reading if you feel like your main point is
getting lost or isn't really popping out enough you've probably included too much
extraneous unnecessary information in your email revisit the first point and
try to get rid of all the fluff once is always enough number three be explicit
about your tone one big drawback about email is that there isn't any body
language and emojis don't count when you talk to someone in person you can read
their face when you talk to them on the phone you can interpret the tone of
their voice remember the smiley voice with their
writing all you have to go on is the words now because of this people often
misinterpret the tone of the email an email could be read as rude sarcastic or
angry when it was actually meant to be sincere neutral or even a joke now for
this reason if you're happy about something make sure that you explicitly
write that if you're frustrated about something say so if you're making
a joke you should probably include a little
disclaimer about that the bottom line here is that you need to be super super
clear about how you want the tone of your email to be interpreted never ever
leave it up to the reader to interpret they will almost always interpret it in
a way that you least expect number four never write an angry email we just
discussed how important it is to be explicit about your tone in an email but
one tone you never ever want to strike is angry to be clear it's totally fine
to express frustration or concern or even confusion but the truth is anger
has no place in email you will almost inevitably write something that you'll
later regret and that even could have potential consequences anger makes
people do things they wouldn't normally do they stop making sense they lose
sight of the bigger picture and they often end up making things worse and
putting that irrational anger fuelled behavior in writing is a recipe for
disaster because there will be a permanent record of what you just said
it's embarrassing it can get you in trouble and it will almost never help
solve the problem so if you're ever feeling that sense of anger bubbling up
inside you when you're writing stop immediately walk away from your computer
put your phone down and take five minutes to breathe deeply and just
decompress maybe work on something else for a while
distract yourself go out on a walk my rule of thumb is that if I'm really
angry like really angry I need to wait at least 12 hours before responding and
writing that gives me time to form a much more logical coherent response that
is really focused on solving the problem rather than venting my anger
all right so there we have it four powerful tips for writing emails like
the boss you are let's quickly recap number one write with a clear mission
statement to never repeat yourself that will just confuse the reader number
three be really clear about your tone of voice and number four never ever write
an email when you're angry now at this point you might be thinking won't
thoughtful emails like this take longer the answer is yes at least while you're
writing an email but it actually saves you time in the long run why is that
well because when you write a clear and concise email you ensure that the reader
totally understands exactly what you're saying which avoids a bunch of
additional follow up emails that would have saps way more of your time trying
to clarify what you originally intended to say in other words by investing a
little extra time and going the extra mile in your email writing you will get
much more value out of your communication and your friends and
colleagues and family will start treating you like the bus you are
alright explearners that's a wrap on this lesson I hope that you enjoyed it
and found it valuable if you did don't forget to like comment
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I will see you in my next lesson happy explearning