Email Best Practices 2.0

Smileys – everyone says they have no place in the workplace. Used with a little thought, I think they are sometimes exactly what’s needed.

A very professional colleague of mine used them. I remember first thinking .. what? Then I noticed how much they helped. In fact, he used them to great effect and only where a little emotion was truly needed.

Let’s face it, email needs all the intonation it can get. In the study, Egocentrism over E-Mail (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2005) it was suggested that we misunderstand the tone of emails about 50 percent of the time.

The ‘Thanks’ email – Another pet peeve of some email experts is when someone responds with just “Thanks .” I say, if you think someone would appreciate your thank-you, just do it. Don’t worry about the extra email. We all appreciate knowing what we did helped someone.

Okay, I’m not suggesting blanket use of either of these (be particularly judicious with smileys). All I’m saying is …

Don’t be afraid to pimp your email style

It’s faster for me to reply to everyone in my own style, but I’m often more successful if I think first about who I’m emailing. Some need quicker replies than others, some need more words, some need serious cow-towing , and I know some who won’t read past the first few lines.

So I’ve learned to adjust, I’m breaking the rules more. It’s working and it’s a little more fun.