I don't love writing posts on "what you must do" topics. I hate to feel like I'm on a soapbox. And sometimes I wish I could get over my insistence on why spelling remains in style. But I think this is really important, and if you do this well--you can stand out.
If you're like me, you think nothing of sending 30-50 e-mails a day. You've probably cracked jokes about your ability to send e-mail in your sleep.
Don't. Or at least not until you read this gem: Send: Why People E-Mail So Badly & How to Do It Better
Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence (ever heard of "marshmellow experiment" for assessing smarts?) describes this gem by David Shipley & Will Schwalbe as the Elements of Style for the digital age.
Ever witnessed a career gone bad as the result of a simple e-mail? I can still remember a senior-level executive wandering down the hall at work asking "how do I take the 'reply all?' command back?" And the college senior who was so hurt by not getting invited to an interview that he wrote the recruiter to say that it was "their loss." (As it turned out, he suffered a bigger one: the company forwarded his message to a network of other recruiters--and he was shut out of campus interviews he'd worked towards for years.)
But beyond the negatives, Send provides invaluable tips on e-mail etiquette: how to title your messages, how to make the best use of a CC or a blind CC, and how to ensure that they will be read.
If you don't have time to buy the book, check out NetM@anners.com and have a look at their e-mail Etiquette 101 tips...and stay tuned. Coming soon: When to send an e-mail, and when to pick up the phone or seek out face time--advice from a Google Exec.
To your success,
Chandlee