Inbox Intelligence: Choosing Email for Effective Business

Talent Report+THRIVE

Description: Unlock the art of strategic business communication in our latest episode, 'Inbox Intelligence.' Dive into the world of email correspondence and discover when and why it's your most powerful tool. Explore effective practices, enhance your professional connections, and master the finesse of choosing email for impactful business interactions. If you're looking to harness the potential of email for impactful interactions, this episode of 'Inbox Intelligence' is a must-listen.

Resources:

Effectively Using Email in the Workplace Video

Business Email - Write it Right Course

Business Writing for Impact: How to Write So People Will Read Course

Overcoming Inbox Overwhelm: Streamline Your Processes Course

MRA Membership

About MRA

Let's Connect:

Guest Bio - Andy Marris

Guest LinkedIn Profile - Andy Marris

Host Bio - Sophie Boler

Host LinkedIn Profile - Sophie Boler

Transcript:

Transcripts are computer generated -- not 100% accurate word-for-word.

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:21:03
Unknown
Hello everybody and welcome to 30 minute Thrive, your go to podcast for anything and everything HR, powered by MRA, the Management Association. Looking to stay on top of the ever changing world of HR. MRA has got you covered. We'll be the first to tell you what's hot and what's not. I'm your host, Sophie Boler and we are so glad you're here.

00:00:21:05 - 00:00:48:22
Unknown
Now it's time to thrive. Well, hello everybody, and welcome to episode number 59 of 30 minute Thrive. Today we're going to dive into the world of email, specifically inbox intelligence and discover when and why it's your most powerful tool. So today I'm joined with expert Andy Marris, MRA learning and development instructor, as he runs through his tips and tricks on using email in our professional lives.

00:00:48:24 - 00:01:14:14
Unknown
So thanks for being here today to be here with you. Okay, so let's start out with the positives. Andy, what are the key advantages of using email as a form of business communication and in today's digital landscape? Well, email is really fast. You can reach a mass audience very quickly and it's documented forever. It's a great follow up tool at a conversation or a meeting so that we talked about this before, right?

00:01:14:15 - 00:01:38:15
Unknown
People know what to do when. But it's also a great way to inform people of things that are easy to understand. Right? If it's confusing, though, I wouldn't put it in email. And then, of course, it's a great documentation tool. So now let's flip that question. What are the biggest challenges of email? It's really fast. You can reach a mass audience really quickly and it's documented forever.

00:01:38:16 - 00:01:57:03
Unknown
Literally, the pros are also the cons because once you hit send, yeah, that's gone. But anything that's real complex or difficult to understand, that's just going to make it a difficult concept and then they're going to not get it. You can't watch somebody react. You can't read their body language and if they get it or not, you can read that in someone's face when we're looking at them.

00:01:57:03 - 00:02:20:24
Unknown
You can't get that out of an email. And it is a big one when you're emotional. Right. Be very careful to take a break, get yourself collected and cool, because if you type in your emotional, it's going to come way worse on the other end than even you intend. Sometimes you got to, you know, go take a walk, yell at the trees, whatever you got to do, take a deep breath.

00:02:21:01 - 00:02:40:08
Unknown
But you want to make sure you're careful with those emotional emails because it comes off the way worse than you than you originally intended. And then anything that's not for public consumption or confidential, as we said, email is never gone. Yes. Great point. In addition to that, tone is really difficult to read. You know what? What a cliché.

00:02:40:08 - 00:02:55:18
Unknown
I'm using my mother in law as an example, but when she says I'm fine, she's fine. When she says I'm fine, I don't know what I'm going to find out later, but it's going to be a while. Yes. Before she reveals that, Right. Well, you can hear that in someone's tone. You can't read it very well in an email.

00:02:55:20 - 00:03:26:12
Unknown
And so that's also a problem. And then even the mechanics. I had a woman I worked with years ago who had a she was really into grammar to be in the grammar police, and she had a really funny sign on her desk that said, I'm silently judging your grammar in my head, and these make me chuckle. But even something as silly as, you know, using a colon instead of a semicolon or a comma after your greeting, that's supposed to be the business way to do it.

00:03:26:12 - 00:03:45:22
Unknown
I couldn't care less. I'm not the grammar police. But you know, something that like that simple could set your email sideways. And then also the design really matters. We've probably all seen somebody as a very stylized background, and because of it, it's really hard to read. Sometimes you please a whole block of text and it just, yeah, your eye doesn't know where to stop.

00:03:45:24 - 00:04:05:14
Unknown
And so there's lots of things that can go wrong with it, even though it's a wonderful tool and use. Well, yes, I'm like picturing now the worst emails I've ever gotten or written, but I feel like I all I'm like an emoji person. So in my emails I will always add an emoji to help with tone so that they know like, Hey, I'm not meaning this in a bad way.

00:04:05:14 - 00:04:29:24
Unknown
And that's good. Emoticons are invented for then. Is it a smart alec smiley face or a happy smiley face? And how professional is that? Right? So you've got to know your audience when you're sending that out. Yeah, but that is the purpose, right? To add tone to text. And that's, that's not soft serve. Sophie So what examples do you have on when tone was maybe misinterpreted with email?

00:04:30:01 - 00:04:49:03
Unknown
I've got a funny one from several years ago. I had a participant in one of my classes and we were talking about how difficult tone is to read. And I was in in Chicago, and I remember as we're discussing that she kind of starts laughing and she says, Well, I've got kind of an embarrassing one that just happened to me.

00:04:49:03 - 00:05:08:19
Unknown
And I said, Well, you comfortable sharing? And she said, Sure. And she said, And folks, this is not necessarily the people at your company. But she said, my my I.T. guy is kind of the stereotype on Saturday Night Live or makes me feel bad for doing his job because over in like, click, click, click. It really? Yeah. Did you even plug it in that guy?

00:05:08:19 - 00:05:27:20
Unknown
Right. So she's like you. It's alter the computer kind of thing. That was her relationship with him. And so there was a vulnerability. There was a virus going around, and he wanted to save some time. And this was many years ago. And I remember when I was in the IT industry years ago, these are called the sneaker netting because the I.T.

00:05:27:20 - 00:05:41:10
Unknown
Staff would put their sneakers on and run from computer to computer. This is before I had all these things behind the wall. They could just fix it. Yeah, well, he sends out an email because he's going to try and get to each computer, but it's going to take them a while to get to everybody. So he sends out an email.

00:05:41:10 - 00:05:57:04
Unknown
So if they can install this patch to keep them from getting the virus, all the better if they can beat him to it. Right. So he sends out this this email and I'll quote unquote read it to you. It says, hello. There's been a huge virus going around the country. You want to we want to make sure we don't get it.

00:05:57:06 - 00:06:12:01
Unknown
Here are the steps to install the attachment. He did Remember to attach it, by the way. Yeah, that's always a new right here are the steps. And then in bullet points, which I love, right? I want it to be one pane of glass. Bullet point. Bullet point. Bullet point. Bullet point. All of the directions on how to do it.

00:06:12:03 - 00:06:33:08
Unknown
Thank you, Jim. It said please. It said thank you. Should they sprinkle in a little tone? She was so angry after reading that she went running to H.R.. Look what I have to put up with from this jerk. She had it in her hand as she printed it out. Any. Any idea why? It's pretty funny when she realized what had happened.

00:06:33:14 - 00:06:55:15
Unknown
I don't know why, Because, you know, the human resources, the person's looking at the thing and go, What's wrong with it? It's very technical. There's nothing emotional about it. And she read it and she read it. I'll give you a hint. It was just one word. It was at the very beginning. Do you remember how that email started?

00:06:55:17 - 00:07:16:03
Unknown
Hello? Yeah, hello. It's a greeting. Right? So a feeling. Hello. How are you? What's wrong with that? Well, can you think of any other interpretations of Hello? Maybe you've seen the movie Back to the Future. I guess. Hello, McFly. Buddy Holly. She read the entire email as if he was knocking on her head like she was an idiot.

00:07:16:03 - 00:07:35:16
Unknown
Oh, wow. And it wasn't based on one word. Based on one word. We read tone into our messaging, and that's what we're up against. I think it's scary. I also think it's a very funny story that is fun. But wow, right? This is what we're up against. And that's why your idea about the emoticons or any of the emojis.

00:07:35:16 - 00:07:54:24
Unknown
Yeah, that's why we use them. Maybe he needed to add a smiley face. Yeah, I don't know. And then she might have thought as a smart aleck smiley face. So who knows where that would have gone, but. Well, that's what we're up against. So good story. So are there certain situations then we're using email might hinder rather than enhance business communication?

00:07:55:01 - 00:08:11:15
Unknown
Yeah. If anything has to be confidential, don't put it in an email. There is no such thing as a confidential email. Which is funny because there's even a little button you can push that says confidential. It's not defensible in court at all, and anyone in the world who has an email address can have that sent to them. Exactly.

00:08:11:21 - 00:08:33:22
Unknown
We've seen so many examples over the years of people getting in trouble because of email be in ink. It's found even if you you know, there's been stories of people using software like bleach bit to get rid of emails and sure that got it off your server and in your computer, but it's still on the server or the network or the computer, the people you sent it to or the people you sent it to, who sent it to somebody else.

00:08:33:24 - 00:08:54:09
Unknown
And so it really has no no end in mind digging the one forever as long as somebody has an email address. So that is kind of frightening. Don't put it in email if you wouldn't want anybody to read it outside of, you know, normal conversation. It's kind of like the tree falling in the woods, you know, nobody hears it.

00:08:54:09 - 00:09:26:03
Unknown
Did it really make a noise? Well, everybody here's an email because it can be forward to any anyone that has an email address. I also run into different relationship things, right? So once you hit send, as I said, they can change the relationship forever. And so we see people using false urgencies, urgent and exclamation point and red and all caps and all those things can really set people off if it's too long on one hand, too wordy, and then if it's too abrupt, not wordy enough.

00:09:26:05 - 00:09:46:22
Unknown
It's funny how this really can have a lot of problems in typing an email when we're emotional. Really, that can really cause problems because tone is so hard to read. Yeah, it comes off way worse than even we were anticipating. And if we're heated when we write it, it comes off isn't serious. Yeah. Going back to your that emails are not confidential.

00:09:46:24 - 00:10:11:08
Unknown
It's kind of like social media to whatever you put on social media. Don't expect it there forever. Yeah, exactly. It's going to be there forever. It lives forever. But we talked about some of these challenges. How can you overcome them? It's a good question. One of the things we had that podcast, a few podcasts ago, we talked about meetings and I talked about can this meeting be an email if it's something really simple and easy to understand?

00:10:11:10 - 00:10:37:12
Unknown
Well, you can ask the opposite question Should this email be a meeting? Yes. If it's more complex, we better do that right. Emails for simple concepts or to follow up is when it's best, right? So we use. I learned this from my colleague Janet. I love this. She calls it the grandma or judge rule. If you're going to make grandma blush by what's in there or you got to stand in front of a judge, don't put it in an email.

00:10:37:14 - 00:11:00:04
Unknown
And so I think that's that's something to really remember when you're considering what you're what you're hitting send. Yeah, absolutely. Any other scenarios where you should not definitely send an email or I know we talk about here if if you're writing and writing and writing and you can't just quickly send it, you should just pick up the phone and call that person.

00:11:00:06 - 00:11:16:18
Unknown
Yeah. If you have to explain something, it's so much easier just going in person or picking up the phone. I like to call that the three thread rule that if I've sent it, they've replied, I've sent another one. It goes back three times, pick up the clock, pick up the phone and call them if you can see them.

00:11:16:18 - 00:11:41:03
Unknown
Even better yet, go see them face to face. You're just going to pile on the confusion. Yeah, the lack of clarity. The more you try to explain something email, if it's not, if it's not understood. I think everyone here in who's listening can agree that we simply get way too many emails, though. Sure. And that means that a lot of emails can also be missed too, because our inbox is so big.

00:11:41:05 - 00:12:04:06
Unknown
So how can you make your message stand out among the mass amount of emails that we already get? Lots of lots of ways that really, really help. You really want to think of your readers perspective. You know, I tell this joke in class, it's lame. Sara I heard it before, but w I have them in the morning. It's what everyone is listening to.

00:12:04:07 - 00:12:25:22
Unknown
I do my radio voice there, but it really does. It is not a radio station. It's it's what's in it for me is what that stands for. And that joke doesn't work. West of the Mississippi, by the way, everything starts with K. But anyway, we want to put our our tone in our in our message, in their reading perspective right now.

00:12:25:24 - 00:12:43:21
Unknown
How do I want to best send it? It you know it. You've got your message to your head. How will they best receive it so they can act? And so I haven't kind of put myself in their shoes. How does this make sense to them? Yeah. Is there a meaningful and searchable subject line? I encourage people actually to fill that out second to last.

00:12:43:23 - 00:13:00:24
Unknown
People usually type it right away. We'll talk about that in a little bit, but it's actually something that I prefer to do once I've written the whole thing. Because sometimes if I start out with any with a subject line in the email, I could change significantly by the time I've typed it in, by the time it hit send, maybe I need a new subject line any way.

00:13:00:24 - 00:13:20:24
Unknown
I think I want to make sure that it's searchable in case somebody is looking for that in the future. That's easy to find and it's not, you know, just to get their attention. You know what you'd see and you cry wolf because it really wasn't that important. Right. And there's that urgency thing again. Yeah. So that makes me think of like you customize your emails based on different people, too.

00:13:20:24 - 00:13:43:23
Unknown
So I know some people who would just like, want one word in the subject line, No, open it. Or I know another person who would want like a detailed subject line. So it's like it's also funny thinking about the person who you're sending the email to, how it changes. Basically, there used to be people would use it like instant messenger before the thing and would say poem for end of message and everything was in the subject line.

00:13:44:00 - 00:14:04:13
Unknown
Yeah, don't do that anymore. We moved on right now, but that was a thing years ago. One of the things I always suggest is to make sure your message as much as possible is on one pane of glass. And of course, you've got your your surface in the view pane of glass is about this big. What about cell phone?

00:14:04:13 - 00:14:22:13
Unknown
Right. Can can you get it so small that they don't have to endlessly scroll now that's not always possible. Yeah, you need to give them enough information that they can take action but the shorter the better. Yeah. And I even prefer if I can get away with it. Bullet points as opposed endless paragraphs. Right. They're going to scroll and scroll is probably not to get read.

00:14:22:13 - 00:14:48:16
Unknown
Absolutely. Well, we talked about one. You should not send an email or use Email is the best form of communication. So do you have any specific scenarios where email is proven to be the superior choice for professional interactions? It's an awesome follow up tool. I love after a phone call or after a meeting or even a face to face conversation.

00:14:48:18 - 00:15:05:14
Unknown
Here's what we spoke about. Bullet point, bullet point, bullet point so that, you know, the person can take action and we can remember and it's documented, right, So that people can say, Well, you didn't say that or we didn't agree to do that. Well, here's what we agreed upon and that they disagree with it, then we can have that discussion over the follow up email.

00:15:05:14 - 00:15:29:17
Unknown
Yeah, but I think it's a tremendous tool for that. I love that. It is great when you reach a mass audience. Yeah. And so we can do that really quickly, really efficiently. Just be just be really sure that it's ready to go before you hit. Send in with like follow ups. Like you said, the meetings, you can include resources than in the mail to Great idea.

00:15:29:19 - 00:15:55:17
Unknown
Great. Are you one of my favorite things with helping people tailor an email message is to help them understand that if you know the communication style of the person you're emailing that can really help you. Folks that are very analytical want lots and lots of information, folks that are what are often called Thrivers or dominant communication styles. They want it as short as possible, right?

00:15:55:19 - 00:16:15:01
Unknown
Well, how can you how can you make both happy, Right. If you're sending to a mass audience? Right. Well, what I suggest is you have it short, but then have a link is best if you can have a link or second passes an attachment. But you've got to make sure you remember to send it. Yeah, attach it right before you send.

00:16:15:03 - 00:16:33:18
Unknown
We had that oops moment before, right. But then anyone that wants to swim in all that data and information can go to the attachment or go to the link. Yeah. And a person that couldn't care less doesn't have to read all that. Still gets what they need to be able to act on that email. And I think it's really important to remember business email should be actionable, right?

00:16:33:20 - 00:16:56:06
Unknown
It's it's for accomplishing things and so there should be some action tied to it. It can be just to make something clear, to follow up, which I think is also a good tool, but usually following up on something that needs to be acted upon. Yeah, that's a great point. So how does email contribute to effective collaboration, especially when working with remote or international teams?

00:16:56:06 - 00:17:15:05
Unknown
It's a great question, right? Follow up is so critical when you're in different time zones. I mean, it's critical even in the same building. Yeah, but it really helps us to make sure everybody is literally on the same page, is doing the right things at the right time by the due dates. Email makes that really easy and it can be asynchronous.

00:17:15:08 - 00:17:35:22
Unknown
Somebody could open it on the other side of the world and it's instantaneous, right? So that is a really great factor with it. You can add the little at symbol in somebody's name and then you can actually send it to several people, but actually have individual call outs where they have different action items they have to do. And so that can really use it.

00:17:35:22 - 00:17:53:00
Unknown
You can use it that way as a collaboration tool and people can read it when it's most convenient to them, their timeframe, their time zone, Right? Yeah, I just kind of a funny little ad I try to tell people don't put. Good morning. Good evening. Good afternoon. Because you don't know when they're going to read it. It might be that time when you send it.

00:17:53:00 - 00:18:11:11
Unknown
It's just a little awkward. It's not a big deal. But I want I want to make sure that that is your maybe has a greeting because I think that sprinkles in some tone. I like using people's name if I can, or my colleague Cheryl says it's the most beautiful sound to a person's ears. And I say, I say that the way they like to be, call it too.

00:18:11:11 - 00:18:29:13
Unknown
I. Mandy Somebody calls me Andrew. I think somebody is mad at me. So especially Bob Right. But, but yeah, I think that's how we sprinkle in a little tone because it is really hard to read. Yeah. And, and I think it's really considerate when they can read it when they're able to. Yeah. And the email allows for that in a clever way.

00:18:29:15 - 00:19:01:24
Unknown
So how about then some of the other email etiquette rules that people may not know or just generally think of? Great question and there's no Emily Post Guide to email etiquette. There's nothing like that. Yeah, but I think most people will agree on a lot of these because they've just seen it abused so many times and they get irritated when they see this one thing, especially that you just mentioned about international, for example, I want to reflect the formality of my reader.

00:19:02:01 - 00:19:23:20
Unknown
If it's a first time conversation or, you know, email read with somebody in another culture, I probably would start out with Hello, Miss Bowler or Hi Mrs. Bowler. And I'd Hey, Sophie. Right? It just it it's not as professional. But if they are, if they then reflect back a more casual tone, then I think that that's a good place to start.

00:19:23:22 - 00:19:44:05
Unknown
Limit those emoticons in those emojis that we talked about, you know, is it professional here? It's okay if you've got that type of relationship and they know you. But here's the biggest one for me as far as etiquette. We've got to watch out for that reply to all button. I am so tired of somebody saying we're ordering from cousin's subs.

00:19:44:05 - 00:20:06:12
Unknown
What do you want? And somebody replies to, Oh, I'll have the turkey with extra mail. I don't care. I didn't ask. Raised me up this way. So we reply to all and everybody needs to know. Well in there's like emails where people are like just reply to me and then it's like implied all Hi, I got to give some people some grace on this.

00:20:06:12 - 00:20:25:23
Unknown
I understand that there's certain phones that if people reply from their phone it automatically replies to all, Well then we should talk to that company and get them to fix that. But that's beside the point. So then assume good intent that they didn't mean to send that to everybody. But good gracious, I don't care about your turkey sandwich if I didn't have.

00:20:25:23 - 00:20:52:00
Unknown
I'm not taking the order. So now, looking ahead with the rise of AI in automation, how do you really first see the evolution of emails of role in in business overall? Yeah, that's a that's an that's an interesting one. Now, I think we're going to not know whether it's a human being there or of a AI writing us on one hand, but I think it'll be even easier to find what we're looking for.

00:20:52:02 - 00:21:13:18
Unknown
Even if somebody does a poor job in the subject line or the message, if you needed six months later, what did that person say? What do I need to know? I think that'll help us find those types of things. The it's still the Wild West. We're going to we're going to find out. But I think those things maybe could be some advantages in AI can help craft an email or help you create an email template.

00:21:13:18 - 00:21:42:10
Unknown
So before we close out the episode, what is one more thing that you want listeners to remember about email? I mentioned a moment ago that we should fill out this subject line second to last writing. We don't really know what the message is going to say until we typed it, right. Sure. Well, I'm pretty passionate about this and I wish I could petition Microsoft to change this because you should fill out the to the CC in the back fields last.

00:21:42:12 - 00:22:01:21
Unknown
And why do you think that is? Because you might forget. I don't know. You might forget that a certain group has to be included or a certain person. So that's definitely true. Maybe I'm missing somebody in those fields if I if I do it too quickly in it. Because again, I don't know what I've type, but I can't send it anywhere.

00:22:01:23 - 00:22:18:02
Unknown
Oh, if there's nothing there, I can't accidentally go oops. And should keep going on out and so I would love to petition Microsoft because it's in the upper left hand corner of your screen, Right. I want to have them put it in the lower right, because when you were in kindergarten, what did your teacher drill into your head?

00:22:18:02 - 00:22:37:09
Unknown
Always put your name at the top, right? And where did you put it? In the upper left hand corner because we read left to right. Well, what do people do First? They put your dress in there. Well, it's the worst thing you can do, because if something's not ready, you can't even accidentally hit send. Now, your question about I don't know, because now they might be monitoring your keystrokes so you still could get in trouble.

00:22:37:09 - 00:22:55:24
Unknown
So watch out for those nasty grams. Right. Because some people will do that to get the emotion out when they're mad and they get delete. Maybe we don't even do that anymore. Maybe find a new way to vent your vent your frustrations. But that's a good right and not send it if there's nowhere for Yes. And sure, a lot of people would appreciate that change.

00:22:56:01 - 00:23:13:00
Unknown
Yeah. And I'm so careful with that, especially if it's something more sensitive. Yeah, I will. If it's a reply, it puts it in there immediately. Right? If it's a forward, it puts it in there immediately. I will cut and paste it somewhere else and bring it back when I'm done. If I'm worried that could accidentally hit, save, send too quickly.

00:23:13:00 - 00:23:35:22
Unknown
Yeah, that's a great idea. So if our audience would like to learn anything else about email etiquette, do you have any recommendations for anything else Emery can offer? So we have a great class and of course I think it's great I teach it, but it's called date. It's called business Email How to write it, Right? And it's a terrific class.

00:23:35:22 - 00:24:08:17
Unknown
It's a half day and we basically focus on the things we we talked about today with a much deeper dive. In addition to that, we have an even more robust class. It's business writing and all the stuff that's in the email class is also within that class. But then we get best practices for letters and text messages and emails and even how to make the tone come through better and all those types of things because we have a full day to really address lots of business writing issues because it is just so hard to read tone in any type of textual message.

00:24:08:23 - 00:24:26:22
Unknown
Well, we will make sure to link those two classes in the show notes below. So if you're interested, you can just take a look the show notes below and and register and have Andy as a teacher. Yeah, I'd love to see you in class or Andy. That's all the time we have today. But I want to thank you for all the great content and tips that you gave us.

00:24:26:24 - 00:24:45:01
Unknown
I think I will now think about this episode every time I debate sending an email, and I hope you do too. But to our listeners, if you liked our chat and topic today, I would urge you to come in any any tips you have here on email, best practices, or just anything that you want to add on to our conversation.

00:24:45:03 - 00:25:07:00
Unknown
Don't forget to share this episode out and consider joining MRA if you aren't a member already. Like I said, we have all the resources you need in the show. Notes below include including resources on this topic too. So thanks for tuning in today and we'll see you next week. And that wraps up our content for this episode. Be sure to reference the show notes where you can sign up to connect.

00:25:07:00 - 00:25:22:04
Unknown
For more podcast updates, check out other MRA episodes on your favorite podcast platform. And as always, make sure to follow MRA's 30 minutes Thrive so you don't miss out. Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next Wednesday to carry on the conversation.