Email Etiquette

January 29, 2012, 7:39 pm , The Island.


Welcome

Welcome to the seventy fifth (75th) edition of the regular column "The Catalyst". Seventy Five consecutive columns I guess is a milestone. It hasn’t been easy to write something useful every week, but I think we have prevailed. I thank The Island team for their support and also our readers. If not for reader feedback and comments, it wouldn’t have gone from strength to strength. I feel it’s serving its purpose and there is an impact, so it has to continue and it will!

Personal Development Skills

Last week we discussed about time management skills. We have also discussed things like presentation skills in the past. Today I thought of picking up another personal development area. This is more relevant to individuals who use emails in their professional work as well as in personal matters.

Email Etiquettes

Etiquette is usually defined as "the conduct or procedure required by good breeding or prescribed by authority to be observed in social or official life".

Communication is a vital part of leadership. Showing strong leadership skills stems from strong communications skills. In today’s world, emails represent a significant part of communications, therefore being good at it is important from a leadership perspective as well.

‘Leadership and communication are inseparable. You can’t have one without the other.’ —-Claude I. Taylor

General Rules

Emails or parts of emails written with capital letters look rude. ALL CAPS IS CONSIDERED SHOUTING.

Over punctuating also makes it difficult to read. Some level of punctuation is important but too much of it is not that good. Also not using proper capitalization or punctuation at all makes it hard to read the e-mail as well.

Lately we have been seeing text messaging abbreviations (such as ur instead of your, 4 instead of for, u instead of you) being used in emails. This is mainly due to the fact that the new generation has come through using mobile phones from very young ages. This has to be avoided at all times in professional emails. So are emoticons. Of course in text messages and chatting they may be used, but in professional emails they are not recommended.

Just like in any formal document, if a certain acronym is used, it has to be first introduced in its detailed form and then only the acronym should be used thereafter.

Although pretty basic, it’s not that uncommon to see emails with spelling and grammar mistakes. They create a bad impression about the sender in the readers’ mind. Especially spelling mistakes are fairly intolerable in today’s context as spell checkers are widely available, and in most applications they are automatic.

In certain working environments, slang words may be used in emails as well, however as these written records can be forwarded/sent anywhere, usually it’s better to keep the use of slang to a minimum.

Needed?

In today’s working environment e-mails are widely used. Some job roles require individuals to deal with about hundred emails a day at their work. So, before you send an email, think whether the recipient actually needs this to do their job. Otherwise, you could be just wasting the other person’s time.

On the other hand, just like with any other form of communication this mode of communication also has to be Timely, Relevant, Complete and Appropriate.

Professional

Some of the tips we are discussing here can be used in both personal and professional contexts. However, in working environments, emails have to be very professional. Usual working ethics have to be adhered to at all times. They should be inoffensive.

There are instances where people need to send emails to multiple recipients. Then you the recipient, may have to reply to that email. Before hitting that ‘send’ button give some consideration to the questions whether you should send it to the original sender only, a few selected people or to all the people involved in the original email. The latter is when we use ‘Reply to all’. It is advisable to limit the use of ‘Reply to all’ as it may only be wasting the time of people unnecessarily. Additionally it should be kept in mind that if you are addressing the email to specifically a single person, but copying it to a few others as they need to be in on the conversation; be polite! Do not condemn or point out any adverse matters directly related to one of the people in the list. This will be equivalent to humiliating a person in front of an audience.

Most email applications have BCC – Blind Carbon Copy function. That’s where you can have someone’s email address in the BCC list, but others in the email wouldn’t know that that person is reading the email. In a professional context, BCC is considered very unprofessional. It can be considered a cowardly act.

Sometimes there are Distribution Lists created with multiple email addresses. This makes it easy to send emails to groups of people. For example, there can be an email group for all managers of an organisation. While it is efficient, use them carefully. Sometimes, unnecessary or confidential information is provided to too many people. Remember the information has to be relevant to the recipient.

Format of e-mails

Rather than writing long one-paragraph emails, it’s better to use multiple paragraphs in the body. Also by using bullets and numbers, the structure can be cleared.

There should be a brief introduction of what the email is about at the beginning, then the body with paragraphs and bullets/numbers. And finally it can be ended up with the expected actions from the recipient/s. This part has to be very clear and action items for each person should be clearly explained succinctly. At the end of the day, especially working emails are sent to achieve certain objectives, and those objectives have to be met. Therefore, it’s important to make sure action items are clearly stated.

The subject line of emails has to be clearly stated as well. Especially in busy times, it could be the subject that gets the attention of the recipient and makes it meaningful. This also helps in finding old emails efficiently. Not having a subject line is very improper as well. Using keywords such as ‘Action’, ‘Info’ or ‘Urgent’ in subject line can strengthen it. In professional emails, subject lines such as ‘Hi’ or ‘Hello’ are inappropriate.

If you include attachments give brief explanations of what they are.

Just in passing, it is acceptable to write a heated e-mail, just wait 24 hours before you send it!

Events

Changing topics, I was a participant at the National Conference on the Role of the Business Community in Reconciliation held last week at the Kadirgamar institute.

Asanga Abeyagoonasekera, Executive Director of the Kadirgamar Institute who delivered the Welcome Address, said that he believed that "the private sector’s involvement in the reconciliation process had the power to transform the devastating effects of a three-decade long war, and that this can be achieved if every organization formulated a ‘Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP)’, so that each organization is part of the national reconciliation process".

In the Keynote Address, Ajith Nivard Cabraal, Governor of the Central Bank, spoke of the many formidable challenges that were faced by the Sri Lankan economy in the past recent years. This was not only due to terrorist attacks and an atmosphere dominated by fear and uncertainty, but also because of the ailing economy due to the LTTE’s strategic objective of crippling the Sri Lankan economy, effects of which were felt by all Sri Lankans, and acutely by the business community.

"Now we have a country that is growing at more than 8%, two years running - first time in our entire history after independence" said Mr. Cabraal. He spoke of the current development programs taking place in the north and the east. Mr. Cabraal stated that 44 different banks have now opened up in the north and the east, along with finance companies. In the eastern province, 46,000 new loans were granted up to last year, a total of Rs. 2.9 billion, and in the north 56,000 new loans were granted, totaling up to Rs. 6 billion. A loan represents a person willing to undertake a livelihood and that one or two more people will have an income stream, said Mr. Cabraal. "Financial inclusiveness from our point of view was ensuring that people had loans and that people had other facilities to receive loans."

He spoke of the Eastern Province which offers the Trincomalee port which has the potential to become a major commercial and industrial hub, large stretches of beautiful beaches and ecological conservation areas for tourism, untapped productive agricultural land, value addition of seafood, and livestock and fisheries development, and of the Northern Province which offers fertile agricultural lands, mineral ores, forests, palmyra based industries, wet lands, beautiful beaches and coral deposits, value addition for fruit, vegetables and seafood, and livestock and fishery resources.

Mr. Cabraal also gave examples of those who had investments already in place in the north and the east such as Yaal Hotel by Jetwing in Jaffna, Fortune Premier in Pasikudah, Anilana Properties in Trincomalee, ICC Hotel in Trincomalee, and the Cargills-BOC Dairy Project. "I want to say to the business sector, that the overall infrastructure has been put in place for you to go and do business. Two years ago I would not have been able to tell you this, but today I can confidently say, go and do business in the north and the east, " said Mr. Cabraal.

There were presentations by ten other eminent persons from the business community and experts in reconciliation but unfortunately I don’t have enough space today for those. I hope to discuss some of it in the future editions.

See you next week!

The Columnist

Yasas Vishuddhi Abeywickrama is a professional with significant experiences. In 2011 he was recognised as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons (TOYP) in Sri Lanka. Yasas has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from University of Colombo and a Masters degree in Entrepreneurship & Innovation from Swinburne University in Australia. He has worked in the USA, UK, Sri Lanka & Australia and being trained in the USA & Malaysia. He is currently involved in the training organisation, Lanka BPO Academy (www.lankabpoacademy.lk). Yasas is also an Executive Council Member of the Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL – www.cssl.lk). Apart from this column, he is a regular resource person for ‘Ape Gama’ program of FM Derana (Sunday 3-5pm). Yasas is happy to answer your relevant questions – email him at
yva@lankabpoacademy.lk .