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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

#141

Post by MichaelMoser123 »

"Let’s call this “boss email.” It’s defined by nearly immediate — but short and terse — replies. The classic two-word email. For underlings, it can be inscrutable. Is that an angry “thanks” or a grateful “thanks”? Does “please update me” imply impatience with you? Boss email can be the workplace equivalent of getting a “k” text reply from a Tinder date. One of the features of this is that it would feel wholly inappropriate for an underling to reply to their boss using the same fast terseness. So is the boss email also a power move, a way of asserting dominance? I doubt many bosses sit staring at their employees’ emails trying to figure out what “ok” really meant.”"

Wow that's some deep social commentary - similar to Gogol's "overcoat"

Re: I tried emailing like a CEO and it made my life better

#142

Post by kqr »

hota_mazi wrote: post #81
albertgoeswoof wrote: post #19

As 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…

> email is one of, if not, THE core method of doing this. I've found this to be less and less true these past years with the rise of Slack. These days, most of my email inbox searches come up empty because what I'm looking for actually happened in Slack.

Proprietary, closed software will never replace open source software with standars protocols. This sounds like wishful thinking but it's more of a statement of fact. Not only because all long-lived protocols we use have open standards, but also because for many companies it does matter whether they can host their own server or not.

Re: I tried emailing like a CEO and it made my life better

#143

Post by vidarh »

amyjess wrote: post #110
vidarh wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 beca…

> 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 have to be especially careful to not treat people who don't report to you as if they're your subordinates. It's bad to do that to people on your own team, and it's worse to do that to people on another team. A good way to build a bad relationship with someone is to treat the…

Absolutely agree. Even when in the same reporting chain, I'd consider it quite bad form because it leaves the people in between with reduced visibility, and often they might have information that makes them prioritize differently or assign different people.

You can get away with some reduced formality when addressing people reporting in to a layer below you but on another team, but "get away with" being the operative part. You will not get away with bypassing managers - even if you manage to sneak it past them now, it'll make people look out for future attempts.

Sometimes if you know everyone well it may be ok to e-mail someone direct and cc their manager and address it to both and suggest the person you're sending it to would be a good person to carry out the work, but I'd take care to make it clear it's up to said manager unless I have very strong reasons to ask for a specific person and then too the manager should at least be informed..

I've been on both ends of this, and more than once told off my managers for bypassing me because of the disruption caused.

Re: I tried emailing like a CEO and it made my life better

#144

Post by MichaelMoser123 »

MichaelMoser123 wrote: post #140
splittingTimes wrote: post #58

I 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…

That's very good advise. I wonder if the armed forces of other countries have the same emailing guidelines

BLUF is common to US military communication, so it probably preceded email

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BLUF_(communication)

actually other countries also have similar regulations that are supposed to favor a compact style of official correspondence

Verwaltungssprache in German https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verwaltungssprache

Официально-деловой стиль in Russian https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9E%D1%84%D0%B8%D1%86%D0%B8...

Re: I tried emailing like a CEO and it made my life better

#145

Post by drb311 »

albemuth wrote: post #123
tekkk wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.…

Better to ask for forgiveness than permission: Hi Jane, I'm focusing on feature 123 since XYZ is blocked by ABC. -A

Nailed it.

Re: I tried emailing like a CEO and it made my life better

#146

Post by nivertech »

albemuth wrote: post #123
tekkk wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.…

Better to ask for forgiveness than permission: Hi Jane, I'm focusing on feature 123 since XYZ is blocked by ABC. -A

even better:

    Jane, I'm focusing on feature 123 since XYZ is blocked by ABC.
or since email already has the address header:

    TO: Jane Janeson 
    SUBJECT: APPROVE: I'm focusing on feature 123 since XYZ is blocked by ABC. EOM

Re: I tried emailing like a CEO and it made my life better

#147

Post by drb311 »

nivertech wrote: post #146
albemuth wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better to ask for forgiveness than permission: Hi Jane, I'm focusing on feature 123 since XYZ is blocked by ABC. -A

even better: Jane, I'm focusing on feature 123 since XYZ is blocked by ABC. or since email already has the address header: TO: Jane Janeson SUBJECT: APPROVE: I'm focusing on feature 123 since XYZ is blocked by ABC. EOM

Even Worf doesn't go that far https://twitter.com/WorfEmail

Re: I tried emailing like a CEO and it made my life better

#148

Post by internetman55 »

The way to deal with this email style (in my experience) is to read absolutely nothing into any aspect of the communication and respond succinctly to exactly what they said. But that would probably only work if your boss is writing that way because he's actually trying to manage many things and communicate efficiently. If he's doing it as a way to look cool or whatever, he might just get mad at you.

Re: I tried emailing like a CEO and it made my life better

#149

Post by internetman55 »

badloginagain wrote: post #96
tekkk wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.…

Use this as an opportunity to 'manage up'. Frame your email to recommend the decision you'd make. In the example below, you know what I would do with no executive decision, and the response I do get can be a one word yes/no reply. Jane, should I keep fixing bug XYZ? Im blocked by Vendor ABC. I can work on Feature 123.

I feel like this only works if you already have a good manager. A bad one will just say 'both' and then keep complaining that they aren't both done.

Re: I tried emailing like a CEO and it made my life better

#150

Post by shostack »

otterpro wrote: post #106

Since moving to Slack, my email has been reduced drastically (both in length and also in quantity), and also writing long emails were limited for sake of archiving or recording as part of formality. Slack, or similar platform, allows workers to write shorter messages, as well. However, one downside is that Slack is more chatter-prone, so the message has been shortened, but now there's a lot more chatter/messages goin…

Not only that, but if I see a snippet of a request or chat in my Slack phone notifications, I can't read the whole thing without removing it from my notification queue.

Often I get things that I need to get to a desktop to properly respond to.

At least with email I can "Mark Unread" or label/put in a folder. I wish Slack had a way to snooze notifications while still letting you read the whole thing.

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