How you communicate matters. Especially when you're communicating through a
computer screen or a phone. And that's how the majority (if not all) of your
communication will take place during a virtual internship -- your computer or your
phone. In this video I'm going over what you need to know about workplace
communication etiquette, so that you don't wind up wanting to put your foot
in your mouth at your internship. Also so that you can learn how to be a good
communicator. How to be proactive, thoughtful and consistent with your
communication during a virtual internship. Hit that like button if
you're ready to learn my communication best practices, that will help you become
the intern that everyone wants to work with, and don't forget to subscribe for
new videos every single week on this channel. Hey there, I'm Jenna Rein from
theinternhustle.com, and this is Initiative Muscle Monday. Helping you to
start each week with an intentional step toward a successful future. Let's do this!
If you missed the last couple videos, I encourage you to go watch them after
this one. They are part of a series that I'm doing on virtual internship success
tips. And there is a guide that I created as a resource for this series as well, so
go grab your copy of my virtual internship success guide at the link
below this video. Alright, on to communication best practices. If you
implement the best practices that I'm sharing with you in this video, and you
learn to think before you speak (or hit send),
then you will quickly go from just "the intern" to "Wow! Where did we find our
intern this year? They are so awesome to work with!" When you first start at your
internship, think about what proactive measures you can take to be a good
communicator. The first thing that I would do when starting a new internship,
is to make sure I understand what tools the company uses to communicate with, and
more specifically what communication tools do they use for each type of
communication. For example, some companies heavily rely on Slack to chat amongst
teams and coordinate projects each day. Other companies do all of their project
management with a tool like Asana. And some just stick to email and send daily
project updates that way. If the company doesn't share this information with you
when you start at your virtual internship, one of your first priorities
should be to figure it out. I have included a space for you to capture this
information in the virtual internship success guide that I mentioned earlier.
You can download your copy at the link below this video. But figure out what
communication tools and platforms your company uses for email, conference calls,
video meetings, chat, document collaboration, calendar invites and more.
And then once you know them, use them appropriately.
Another proactive step that you can take when you kick off your internship is to
learn the preferred communication styles of the people that you'll be working the
most closely with. In my last video, I already talked about doing a one-on-one
weekly meeting with your manager, and how important that is for your success. But
chances are you're gonna be communicating with your manager more
than just once each week, during your weekly one-on-one meetings. So ask them --
how would they prefer that you communicate with them when you have
questions or updates to share? Some people may be all about knocking out the
quick questions and answers over chat, while others maybe want to see one
summary email from you at the end of each day, and some may even be old school
and expect you to pick up the phone. Ah! I said phone! I know, but you can do it.
You can have a phone call. I recommend learning the preferred communication
style of your manager (or the person that you're gonna be reporting into), as well
as anyone else that you're gonna be working with on a regular basis. Learning
and using preferred communication styles is both proactive and thoughtful on your
part. So let's step into some more thoughtful communication best practices.
Specifically thoughtful email communication. Look, there's a reason why
there are so many work email memes floating around out there. It's because
people can be THE WORST when it comes to work email. At my last corporate job I
would get close to 500 emails each day. And I would argue that over half of them
were not related to me, or even necessary. If you listen to anything that I have to
say, I hope it is this -- Be thoughtful when you are sending and replying to emails
at your internship. Okay, so the anatomy of addressing an email -- and this may
sound a bit basic to you, but I have seen way too many people get it wrong to not
walk you through this step by step. The TO field. This is who the email is
written for. Who do you actually need to update, or require a response from. Do not
put everyone in the TO field. I'm gonna repeat that...
do not put everyone in the TO field. That makes it impossible for people to know
who should actually be taking action, and confusion ensues, and
nothing's actually getting done. There are CC and BCC fields for a reason. So
let's go ahead and chat about those right now. The CC field, this is who needs
to know about what you're sending in your email as an FYI. This person doesn't
need to take any action, but they may be a stakeholder in what you're working on.
Meaning they care to see your updates, because what you're working on likely
impacts updates that they may need to send to their boss (or send up the chain).
The BCC field is who do you want to know about what you're sending your email as
an FYI, but also keep behind the scenes. Because when you use BCC, the person in
the TO field or the CC field will not see that this person that you BCC'd
received the email. BCC stands for blind carbon copy. The best use case for the
BCC field... let's say your manager wants to know that you've taken action on
tasks that they've given you, but you're trying to spare their email inbox from
all of the email back and forth that will ensue after you send this initial
email. Also, the person that you're sending the email to, in the TO field,
doesn't necessarily need to know that you BCC'd your manager, because you've
got this. And you want to encourage them to work with you directly, without
thinking that they need to involve your manager every step of the way. If they
see your manager in the CC field, they may be more inclined to just jump over
you and go straight to your manager with any questions or follow-ups. So this is
easily avoidable if you use the BCC field appropriately. The use of CC and
BCC are great things to clarify with your manager when talking about
preferred communication styles. Maybe they always want to be CC'd and never
BCC'd. Maybe they never want to be included on your emails, at all, because
they get way too many emails as it is. Check with them first...they will be so
appreciative of your thoughtful approach to this. So that covers how to address
emails. But how about responding to emails? This is where things can get
heated. You never want to be on the wrong side of a Reply All. Don't believe me?
Just Google Reply All memes. Okay, so the Reply field -- this is what you use when
only one person really needs a response from you. That's it.
Super simple. Do you feel like more than one person needs a response from you? Go
ahead and rewind this video, and revisit what the CC and BCC fields are for. The
Reply All field -- use this if it would benefit everyone on
the email to receive a response from you. Ask yourself... Does everyone on this email
really need to see what I have to say, or maybe just a couple people and I can use
the TO and the CC fields for that? And whatever you do, do not hit Reply All to
a company-wide email just to say "Thanks! Looking forward to attending the company
Zoom call." Or even worse, you meant to just hit Reply to your buddy (another
intern), with a sarcastic remark, but you accidentally hit Reply All and now the
entire company thinks that you're a jackass. Think before you hit send. Also,
bonus piece of advice for you -- Don't use company email to send things that you
wouldn't want the CEO to see. It's kind of like that advice people give you for:
Don't post things on social media that you wouldn't want your grandma to see. Be
thoughtful also means be thoughtful about the type of person that you want
to be known for at this company. The final communication best practice that I
have to share with you in this video, is how to be consistent. What are some
consistent communication best practices that you can implement at your virtual
internship that will earn you a gold star or two? My best advice is to learn how to
craft effective email. Starting with the subject of your email.
Use consistent words and phrases to start your email subject lines, as a way
to communicate purpose, need and urgency. Then fill in the subject line with
specifics so that if someone is searching for emails in their inbox on
say "Project Apple" or "Client 11", then they can easily locate emails that you sent
them on this topic. For example use FYI: to notify someone that you've completed
a task, or to provide information for someone's review that is not required or
time-sensitive. So for example: If you're sending a general update on Client 11,
say in your subject line FYI : Client 11 blah blah blah (whatever else you need to
include as part of this subject). Use PROJECT UPDATE: in your subject line to
deliver time-sensitive status updates for a specific project. Again an example
would be something like... PROJECT UPDATE: Project Apple, Week of June 8th.
Another great example of a consistent starter phrase/
subject line that you can use is ACTION REQUIRED: And this is when you want to
request specific action from an individual. You can also use URGENT: but
don't be the boy that cries wolf. Use it sparingly. But you can use URGENT: as a
way to address someone in a subject line in order to request immediate response
or action from someone. And use WEEKLY RECAP: to summarize tasks that you've
completed, or project updates, and open questions that you have each week for
your manager or a project leader that you're working with. These are best sent end
of day Friday, or first thing Monday morning, in order to recap the week and
then also set the stage for the next. Speaking of WEEKLY RECAP: this is one of
the best consistent communication practices that you can implement. Sure,
because the people that you're working with will love you for it. But more
importantly, because it holds you accountable. And accountability may be a
tough thing at a virtual internship. Because no one's checking in on you at
your desk to make sure that you're getting your work done (or that you
aren't sitting around on tik-tok all day). A WEEKLY RECAP email forces you to
accomplish new things each week, and drive progress forward, because you're
reporting on it. And sending the same weekly recap email update each week
would be pretty boring and pointless for everyone involved. So by sending this
email, you are forcing yourself to actually move things forward and get
things done. So what types of things should you include in this email to keep
it consistent and easy for people to follow? You should start with a
high-level overview, and then follow that up with action items, project updates or
open questions as bullet points. And I say bullet points, because bullet points
make it easier for people to follow along than just straight paragraph blobs
of text in an email. Especially because people are often reading email from
their phones or their tablet devices these days, and chunks of text can be
hard to digest. If any of the bullet points that you write out are actually
action items for people, then make sure that you're assigning names to those
action items as well, and include dates for when they need to complete their
actions by. Sign off with a quick sentence or two about what you're
looking forward to working on in the week ahead, and you're done.
A quick weekly recap email to keep everyone updated and accountable. There
you go. Those are some of my best practices for
communicating at your virtual internship. And helping you to stay proactive, and
thoughtful and consistent in your communication. If you want even more tips
about how to write a professional email, be sure to check out this video next. And
don't forget to grab your copy of my virtual internship success guide at the
link in the description below this video. It includes the communication best
practices that I shared with you today, and so much more to help you out on your
virtual internship journey. Thanks for watching! If this video gave you some new
insights today, please give it a like and share it with a friend or two. Hit that red
subscribe button below so that you don't miss out on future videos. In support of
your hustle, I'm Jenna from theinternhustle.com, and I'll see you next Monday.