Must Haves & Never Agains
Words can make the difference between a ‘hell yes’ and a flat-out 'no'. Words are your avenue to make an impact or NOT.
How much time, effort and intention do you bring to your words? How about to your emails?
If emails are sucking you dry, it’s likely that in the quest to achieve inbox ‘zero’, you are plowing through on autopilot and losing your impact as a leader.
The inbox struggle is real. It can be the biggest distractor of the day which can lead to emails being ineffective, unclear, disorganized and without vision.
I teach the Language of Leadership to help high performers communicate from a vision and towards powerful outcomes. The Language of Leadership is based on intentionally writing the thoughts that will generate the results you want for yourself and from others.
The Language of Leadership empowers others, and as a result, your inbox gets smaller. And, the emails you receive in return will be clearer, more productive and producing the outcomes you want. When your inbox gets smaller, you are less distracted and have more time to lead from your vision.
How you show up in your emails is a reflection of your leadership brand.
Here’s 11 MUST HAVES and NEVER AGAINS to consider before you hit send:
Scan your emails for SHRINKERS - words that diminish you and them - and minimize what you are saying. Words like: just, but, so. Delete them.
Check for unnecessary openers and APOLOGIES - saying sorry as an entranceway to a conversation is ineffective and also diminishing. Another way sorry shows up is opening your email with: “I know you are busy.” We all are. Acknowledging that has nothing to do with your email. Get right to the point.
Informality - I personally don’t like writing with short cuts. Cut out the acronyms (OMG, TTYL, TY, RN, LOL) which make you small and your message smaller. If you don’t have time to write out a thank you, that’s a time management problem or, even worse, inauthentic gratitude.
Not using capital letters to start a sentence or in front of proper nouns is another never again. Commas, semicolons, periods are the foundation of the English language and belong in emails.
I wonder about why people use the word excited in emails and the overuse of exclamations. What are you trying to say when you use three !!! exclamations at the end of your sentence?
Validation - Are your questions looking for support making you look weak? ‘Does that make sense? Do you know what I mean?’ If it doesn’t make sense to you or if you feel the need to ask for validation, go back and rewrite your email to make it make sense. When it does, there's your validation.
Emails that are direct, clear and set expectation get better outcomes.
Knowing is not understanding.. What does success look like from your email? They may know what they are working on, but do they understand the impact of the project or the risk of their work? Spell it out for them. When the reader finishes reading they should know what they're accountable for, the next step, and what to do when they have questions or run into a challenge.
Be curious and foster curiosity. Lead others by asking them to take accountability for their actions, their thoughts, their next steps. Ask questions even when you know the answer. People grow when they come up with their own answers. Telling is not leading.
Get out of the weeds and lead them to your vision. Write to the outcomes you want for your long-term relationship and not from the short-term distractors.
One piece of thoughtful encouragement is an easy gift that can go along way.
A few other thoughts on emails:
People read into emails. If people are looking for the hidden meaning in your emails, that’s a signal of a lack of trust. The most productive emails say what they mean.
Be careful how you use emotion in your emails. (This is frustrating; makes me angry; pisses me off; is so disappointing; I can't stand, OMG). Emails are no place for drama. Drama takes you off of your game, your team’s game and will not lead you to the outcomes you want.
Emails are a place to influence. They are not a place to prove you are right. That’s ego not leadership. Stay off the defense. Get on the offense.
Clean up your emails. When you bring more intention to influencing, teaching and leading, your emails will become a signature to your leadership. People will even look forward to opening them.
If you are considering working with a Coach or want to know more about the components of a Coaching engagement, let’s get on a call with this link.
The question I get most frequently on these calls, ‘what results can I achieve?’ Here’s what one client shared:
"Christina was able to help me accelerate my progress towards becoming a strong leader and creating a more balanced work life. We focused on more tactical things, like organizing my calendar and responding to specific emails or challenges and we also discussed much larger, more fundamental concepts that were either getting in my way or posing a challenge to my growth. As a result of our time together, I have been able to delegate more effectively and therefore scale my impact and influence. I’ve also been able to establish a stronger leadership relationship with my Executive Team and appear not only as a strong individual contributor but also a leader who will help shape the organization. I have also established a stronger sense of being a challenger in both Sales and Account Management and speak to my prospects and customers from a place of authority and knowledge versus need to appease. I know that because of the work that I have done with Christina, I will enable my team to continue to take on more business and support our growing client-load."
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