email has no tone of voice
email doesn’t allow for reactions to be gauged
email can be words without meaning
email should not become a series of one sentence responses
Email can NOT replace a conversation
As a leader and a manager – please use email as ONE of your forms of communication.
It doesn’t replace having a conversation with an individual on your team.
Recently I experienced a back and forth email that was seriously annoying (at least to me). Why?
1. because a 3 to 5 minute conversation would have completed the communication effectively vs. an email string that went on (and off) over a few hours.
2. there was no attention paid to the topic, only responses to what we each wrote back.
3. it was NOT a conversation, it was a series of seemingly independent thoughts loosely tied together because they were in one document.
From having a conversation the next day we were BOTH frustrated by how the communication went.
Why the email string vs. a conversation?
> the person I was communicating with was in meetings all day BUT felt it was important to respond immediately – what would have worked is “I’m in meetings all day, would you like to have a conversation tomorrow or email back & forth?”
> as we each got frustrated, we just wanted it to be over… so both of our responses became shorter and less expressive.
Before you click reply OR send an email in response to a voicemail please remember; Email can NOT replace a conversation
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