How to navigate the Email Dilemma: To Send or Not to Send?

In a world dominated by digital communication, the age-old question persists: to email or not? Dive into a refreshing perspective on navigating the delicate balance of virtual correspondence. Discover tips to streamline your communication style and make informed choices in the ever-evolving landscape of emails. Uncover the art of impactful messaging and reclaim your inbox with newfound clarity.

According to a?report?from Preply, a foreign language learning platform, approximately 90% of employees believe that workplace misunderstandings and miscommunication have a common starting point: email. In fact, based on the study, email has the highest rate of causing fractured communication and workplace anxiety, with 67% of misunderstandings sprouting from voice messages, 71% from phone calls, 79% through direct messaging, 80% from text messages, and an overwhelming 87% via email. The research was conducted in November and surveyed 1,030 U.S. employees to explore communication preferences in the workplace.

Before sending an email:

• Define Purpose and Call for action: Clearly understand why you are sending the email and what outcome you expect. Make sure your call to action is clear and aligned with your objectives. Ask yourself ‘Could any aspect of this message be misunderstood?’
• Review Content: Double-check the content for accuracy, clarity and relevance to ensure it aligns with your goals. If you're composing an email or responding to an existing one in a hurry, you might miss important details, appear to be inconsiderate, or totally miss the point and respond to what you thought they were saying.
• Recipients: Confirm you have included all relevant recipients and excluded any unnecessary ones. You could end up breaching data privacy and send the email to the wrong person with a similar name by accident or copy everyone into a conversation that was intended to be private, which of course, cannot be undone. Adapt your email approach to consider when and how you compose your next email, and take into?consideration the recipient's preferences.
• Subject Line: Revisit the subject line to confirm it accurately reflects the email’s content. Ask yourself ‘Could the subject line cause undue anxiety for my team members?’
• Tone Check: Ensure the tone is appropriate for the recipient and the message you are conveying. Ask yourself ‘Might this email come off as inappropriate or offensive, because of our cultural or age differences?’ Emails, in common with other text-based forms of workplace communication, have one thing in common: they miss the human element. Vocal intonations and body language help us create a more well-rounded picture of what someone is trying to convey, and without these aids, communicating may be convenient but risk being easily misinterpreted, and tensions could foster. Aim, as much as possible, to inject some of your personality and a human voice to your written messages. You could use a warm, conversational tone, mention the recipient's name in your greeting, and?sparingly?use emoticons in more laidback workplace settings, and in line with organisational etiquette.

• Send Time: If timing matters, schedule the email for an appropriate time. Ask yourself ‘Is it really urgent or can it wait? The worst time to send an email is when you're upset, particularly if the person you're directing the email to is the cause of your frustration.’

Taking a moment to review these elements before hitting ‘send’ can help ensure your email is polished and effectively conveys your message.

Our approach, particularly if acting in a leadership role, should be focused on adapting communication methods and tools to suit each team member or stakeholder, according to their preferences, and being mindful of?how?we write and even?when?we write and send emails. Managers can enhance email effectiveness by setting clear communication expectations, fostering an open dialogue, and promoting brevity. Encouraging the use of subject lines that convey the message’s essence can streamline communication. Additionally, promoting a culture of responsiveness and offering guidance to a more efficient workflow. Periodic communication and training and tools for effective collaboration can empower the team to leverage emails as a productivity asset rather than a source of overwhelm.

Embrace these email communication skills this new year so you can easily build and maintain healthy relationships with team members, managers, and stakeholders, wherever they may be, and prove successful as a hybrid workforce.