Even the smallest act of caring for another person is like a drop of water: it will make ripples throughout the entire pond.
[JESSY + BRYAN MATTEO]
How often have you heard the saying, ‘it is the little things that count’?
How we start and end our emails is one example of how a little thing can make a big difference.
Emails are a common form of communication in business, even before we all started working remotely! How we start an email can affect how the message we’re sending is interpreted. This is partly due to the fact that a large part of communication is about how we are made to feel.
Often, when we’re under pressure, we only focus on tasks. When we communicate with our colleagues we tend to jump straight into the message without taking time to connect first. It only takes a few seconds to start with a brief connecting sentence rather than jumping straight in with what we want from the person or what we want to tell them.
As Mike Reid, founder and CEO of Basecamp Strategy, a political fundraising company says, “the very first sentence matters most”.
In their article, Striking the Right Chord, they tell us that the language we use in our opening communication is critical during in signaling our tone and establishing rapport.
Arden Clise, Author of Spinach in Your Boss’s Teeth: Essential Etiquette for Professional Success, takes it further and says we must acknowledge that we are living in extraordinary times. “If you’re not acknowledging the challenges of our world right now, it looks like all you care about is business,” says Clise. “You come across as focused on only the bottom line.”
Instead of starting your next mail with: “Hi, please can you get this to me by the end of the day”, try connecting first. If you’re emailing someone you haven’t communicated with recently, try starting with, “I hope you are well and managing in these challenging times …”.
To a colleague you communicate with more often, you could say, “I hope you had a great weekend,” or “I hope today is going to be a good day for you,” or “I know you’re really busy but could you take a minute to look into this for me please”. It really is one introductory sentence but it will increase connectedness and, ultimately, cooperation.
Caring email sign-offs to try
The pandemic has, in many ways, made businesses more empathetic, and many people changed their email sign-offs to sound more caring. But we don’t need a pandemic to show that we care. Consider changing your current sign-off to one of these examples below shared by American Company, Flex Jobs:
- Have a great socially distant day
- Yours from afar
- Sent from my living room
- Stay healthy, stay safe
On a more serious note, some other suggestions are:
- Sending thoughts of health and peace
- Take care
- Sincerely, in these strange times
- In no haste
These few extra words can help you communicate a human element. Try and treat people you’re mailing in the same way you would if you saw them face-to-face. Start with a greeting to connect, then communicate your message or hear theirs, and end with a farewell.
The way we initiate communication with our employees or colleagues can affect whether they feel safe or anxious; and we know that people perform better when they feel safe, valued and respected.
Before you send off that next email, take a quick read, pretending you’re the recipient, and see how it comes across.