Spotted this in ExchangeEveryDay (exchangeeveryday@ccie.com ), and thought it worth passing along.
In a letter to the editor in Harvard Business Review OnPoint (hbr.org), Rita Gunther McGrath shared “Rita’s Golden Rules for E-mail”:
- Meaningful subject lines that tell the reader what to expect.
- No e-mail should be longer than one screen of information.
- One subject per e-mail. When I’ve dealt with an item, I want to delete it. I can’t do that if your e-mail contains 10 action items.
- E-mail is the wrong place for emotional outbursts.
- E-mail is the wrong place for communications of a personal nature.
- Assume that everything you put in an e-mail could end up on the front page of the New York Times and be accordingly discreet.
- Because you sent it doesn’t mean I got it. Because I got it doesn’t mean I read it. Because I read it doesn’t mean I understood it. Because I understood it doesn’t mean I agree with you.
- Don’t send an e-mail when a short phone call would do a better job.
Julie Wassom
“The Speaker Whose Message Means Business”
Marketing and Sales Speaker/Consultant/Author
Call me: 303-693-2306
Fax me: 303-617-6422
E-me: julie@juliewassom.com
See me: www.juliewassom.com