Jeff Bezos is famous for forwarding emails with just a question mark to employees when he receives complaints from customers. https://www.quora.com/Whats-it-like-to-receive-a-question-ma...
A senior editor at buzzfeed is not Jeff Bezos
I tried emailing like a CEO and it made my life better
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Re: I tried emailing like a CEO and it made my life better
#72This doesn't work. I've gotten many bad reviews, because people thought I was being "curt" or "mean" because I was replying to their question with short replies. None, of my emails were intended to be mean, I just didn't see the point in fluffing up my emails, and only responded with the required information, but I guess people require the fluff or they get their feelings hurt.
It works, but as a general rule, you need to include more fluff than the person above you in the hierarchy unless you know they're fine with you being shorter. The trick is figuring out just how much more fluff is ok.
But what will come across as "curt" or "mean" is if your e-mails are substantially less fluffy than those of your boss or your co-workers. You need to adapt to the style in use in the business, not because it is objectively curt or mean, but because people judge whether or not you're being curt or mean subjectively based on their base of comparison, and that is your co-workers.
Re: I tried emailing like a CEO and it made my life better
#73I would say, do your best to imagine the receiver’s Inbox and help them.
I wish that E-mail clients didn’t give so much control to senders. (Oh, you picked a crappy Subject line so now I need to use that in my list forever? Oh, you rambled for the first 1-2 sentences so now my message preview is useless. Oh, you mark every E-mail “high priority” so now that sort column doesn’t really organize things usefully.)
Re: I tried emailing like a CEO and it made my life better
#74I have always disliked the massive over-use of e-mail, and when I first heard "Email is where keystrokes go to die" [0] it really resonated with me. E-mail is temporal, but far too often used for things of long lasting significance. Though it's somewhat of a necessary evil for communicating externally, I don't use it internally for anything more than I have to.
Here's my take:
Anything long-lived belongs on wiki, ticket system or other shared storage location. E-mail a notification to say there's an update, but the official version doesn't belong archived forever in everyone's inboxes -- well, everyone other than employees who happened to start after it was sent, of course.
Quick questions are better done over chat, if for no other reason than the single-line interface tends to encourage single-line questions.
Long conversations are better had in person or by video chat. How many times have you been on an e-mail thread that included several angry paragraphs written back and forth because of an incorrect assumption or simple misunderstanding?
My ideal interactions start with a chat message or ticket, switch to in-person/video if needed, and document the result (if relevant) in a ticket or wiki page. No e-mail involved.
Re: I tried emailing like a CEO and it made my life better
#75I started to follow this approach [1] 6 month ago and it is amazing how much clearer my own thoughts in communication have become. 1. Subjects with keywords. The subject clearly states the purpose of the email, and specifically, what you want them to do with your note. Keywords: ACTION, SIGN, INFO, DECISION, REQUEST, COORD 2. Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF). Lead your emails with a short, staccato statement that declares…
so try to fit all content in one pane, so the recipient doesn’t have to scroll Oh no, have we introduced "the fold" into emails too, after a decade of forlornly trying to persuade people it doesn't exist on the web?
If you look at heatmaps of user interaction with webpages, it absolutely does exist.
Re: I tried emailing like a CEO and it made my life better
#76I started to follow this approach [1] 6 month ago and it is amazing how much clearer my own thoughts in communication have become. 1. Subjects with keywords. The subject clearly states the purpose of the email, and specifically, what you want them to do with your note. Keywords: ACTION, SIGN, INFO, DECISION, REQUEST, COORD 2. Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF). Lead your emails with a short, staccato statement that declares…
so try to fit all content in one pane, so the recipient doesn’t have to scroll Oh no, have we introduced "the fold" into emails too, after a decade of forlornly trying to persuade people it doesn't exist on the web?
Well it sounds like it does exist, in the sense that the whole article and the parent comment's experience suggest brevity has been working for them to maintain attention.
Unless you mean trying to pack as much in as possible without exceeding an arbitrary measurement of where the fold is, as opposed to just being very brief and to the point? If so, that does seem to defeat the point and would be inconsistent.
Re: I tried emailing like a CEO and it made my life better
#77As a manager or senior a huge part of your job is communication and distributing information, and email is one of, if not, THE core method of doing this. The author has decided to provide poor communication because she can’t handle her inbox. One word replies can be extremely misleading and will cost her more time overall than reading and replying to her emails properly. I would be fuming if I was her boss or worked…
I like it. As an employee, it also takes the pressure off for me to be verbose and match the formality of my managers emails. And a simple explanation like "I use short emails because they are quick and easy. Please don't read too much into the tone" the first time around would allay an employees concerns.
It leaves some things unsaid, but better to say them once. Like I sometimes reply "OK" or "got it" to a long request by a manager when I have nothing further to say, but if i DO have questions/concerns, they know I will say more. With that shared understanding, receiving an "ok" saves us both time and energy. Its really great.
Re: I tried emailing like a CEO and it made my life better
#78Rules for good emails 1. Keep the message as short as necessary but no shorter. 2. Put the most important information at the top of the message. 3. If it email is for an ask, call out from who you need the response and put it at the top of the message. 4. If you need to send a long email with many details, put the most important information at the top (ie. what the reader needs to know) and then fill in the body with…
For #1, what I have found works best is to nix the huge amount of text you'd otherwise write in the email and put it in a link. A document maybe, or better yet a beautiful portal that works on desktop and mobile. That way the email is short AND the link can be reshared!
That doesn't work when your recipients are frequent business travellers who have only intermittent Internet connectivity and the link is behind a corporate firewall. For those people I usually include the document as an attachment. Not ideal but it keeps the discussion moving.
Re: I tried emailing like a CEO and it made my life better
#79Rules for good emails 1. Keep the message as short as necessary but no shorter. 2. Put the most important information at the top of the message. 3. If it email is for an ask, call out from who you need the response and put it at the top of the message. 4. If you need to send a long email with many details, put the most important information at the top (ie. what the reader needs to know) and then fill in the body with…
>Hey Jane, I need your input on how to prioritize my current work. Can you provide guidance on where I should focus?
>Bug XYZ was assigned to me and it's taking longer to complete because we have a dependency on Vendor ABC completing a change to their web service. This is impacting the commitment to my team on Feature 123 because we are near the end of our sprint.
>Lemme know.
Pss, amateur. That's way too many words.
Hi Jane,
should I keep fixing bug XYZ or focus on feature 123? Vendor ABC is taking longer than we thought to fix their stuff.
Bill
And sometimes add a smiley so they know you're not made of circuits yourself too.
Re: I tried emailing like a CEO and it made my life better
#80I started to follow this approach [1] 6 month ago and it is amazing how much clearer my own thoughts in communication have become. 1. Subjects with keywords. The subject clearly states the purpose of the email, and specifically, what you want them to do with your note. Keywords: ACTION, SIGN, INFO, DECISION, REQUEST, COORD 2. Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF). Lead your emails with a short, staccato statement that declares…
so try to fit all content in one pane, so the recipient doesn’t have to scroll Oh no, have we introduced "the fold" into emails too, after a decade of forlornly trying to persuade people it doesn't exist on the web?
The fold has existed in emails ever since people started top posting (I happen to think top posting is very often the best way to optimize your time spent in email).