mail communication

A few simple rules will significantly enhance the effectiveness of your e-mail communication.

· Ask yourself: ‘is this the most effective method of communication for this particular message’ – consider the sensitivity of your message, the receiver’s communication preferences and their physical proximity.

· Get the length right – extroverted theoretical types have the shortest attention span of all; statistically your CEO is likely to be one of these. They will read an e-mail until the point they think they know what you are writing about; they will stop there and take whatever action they think appropriate. Therefore restrict your e-mails to one question only when dealing with these types as any subsequent questions will go unread.

· Use an effective tone – this is even more important than with face-to-face communication as you haven’t got body language to soften a blow or harsh word. Tone is the personal touch that compels a reader to react positively or negatively. An effective tone will encourage co-operation and consideration. An

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ineffective tone will do exactly the opposite. Consider the following examples:

o ‘I am mailing you to remind you about our follow-up meeting scheduled for tomorrow at 11 am; last time we met you kept me waiting for 20 minutes, I do not expect to be kept waiting this time.’

o ‘I just wanted to check that we are still OK for tomorrow at 11 am. I appreciate that you are very busy and wish to thank you for your time. I understand that you have many back-to-back meetings so please let me know if you need to adjust the time of our follow up.’

How would you respond if you received either of the above messages in an e-mail?

Writing reports

The most important part of any report is the executive summary. The majority of IT people have no problem at all with the body of a report providing more than enough detail and data. However, most executives will only ever read the executive summary and, if inspired, skim through a little of the body of the report. If the executive summary doesn’t hit the spot, all the effort dedicated towards the body of the report has been wasted. The executive summary must be a genuine summary of the whole of the report; it must be sufficient for a busy executive to grasp the issue and make a decision. The executive summary is not an alternative term for an introduction. Executive summaries should:

· establish the purpose of the report and why it is important or of interest

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• summarise the current status in relation to the topic of discussion

• explain precisely your key message and/or findings

• state what you want to happen and what actions you want taken, by whom and by when.

Assume you’re writing for someone who is very busy, and very impatient. Assume he or she will be asking: ‘What’s the point? What do I do with this information?’. Apply the

‘so what?’ test to everything you write.

If excited by the executive summary, your reader may dip into the body of the report. Make it easy for them, make it inviting; use space, structure, bullet pointing, bold type, numbering, short sentences, paragraphs, etc. Text that is too dense is the quickest and easiest way to switch a reader off.

Take the opportunity to put key messages in section headings.

Key ideas from this chapter

This chapter has been about communication and recognises that in organisational life everything gets done through human interaction. The Transformational Leader has to focus on communication capable of creating the future rather than providing life-support for the present.

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1 Place networking as your number one agenda item; dedicate a certain amount of time to this activity each and every day

2 Consider your own style of communication and your interactions with others. Are you a pragmatic, theoretical, idealistic or social type?

3 Pick a key stakeholder with whom you don’t easily connect. Determine their preferred communication style; make a list of the steps you can take now to improve communication with this individual. Put your plan into action

4 Consider what you have learned from this activity and extend this approach to your other key stakeholders

5 Work on adopting an effective tone in all your acts of communication, whatever the vehicle

Table 12: Five key actions for future-focused communication

Reflection

Think of personal examples where you have faced fundamental difficulties getting your message across:

· Did you merely repeat the same message in the same way but louder?

· When presenting to a group, did some individuals get it whilst others did not?

· Do you end up talking at cross-purposes from time to time?

· Do you ever get frustrated with others and wish they would get to the point, or do you get frustrated with people who come up with vague, poorly constructed strategies and are not interested in the practical realities?

Now take a look at:

· A presentation you have recently put together – is it of one predominant style, and if so, which?

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· Review some of your e-mails; how long are they?

· Take a look at a report you have written recently; is your executive summary a genuine summary of the whole report, does it provide pointers to the issue and key findings?

More food for thought

· Anthony Stevens,On Jung, Penguin (1990).

o A very good book if you want to learn more about Jung.

· Gordon Lawrence, People Types and Tiger Stripes, Centre for Application of Psychological Type (1996).

o This book gives an explanation of how type shows up in everyday life, especially in learning and teaching.