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In this issue:

1. Eight Tips For More Effective Email Communication
2. The Great Sales and Training Divide
3. Visit Business Training Library at the 2007 SHRM Conference in Las Vegas
4. Course Review: Insights to Better Mentoring



1. Eight Tips For More Effective Email Communication

A recent report estimated that over 7 trillion emails were sent worldwide last year! Spam messages are jamming in-boxes across the globe and the average office worker now gets between 60-200 messages a day. While no one denies the obvious productivity gains we’ve realized from the efficiencies of email communication, many people find themselves drowning in all these messages.

Here are eight tips that will make your email communications more effective.

1. Practice being clear and concise with your message.
You’ll save time and your reader will appreciate it. Investing extra time while authoring an email pays big dividends by giving your reader a clear understanding of your message. Remember, if your email is written with the purpose to educate, inform or persuade, then making sure to get your point across is even more critical.

With the sheer volume of email messages most business people receive, there’s an inverse relationship between the volume of text and successfully making the point. Most people will immediately read and understand a ten sentence email. Send them a 10,000-word document and they’ll likely scan the highlights, save it for later and you risk it not being read fully. People appreciate brevity. Remember, if your objective is to tell the reader what time it is, you don’t need to explain how to build a clock!

2. Before sending, ALWAYS reread your message and double check for grammar and misused words.
It’s obvious to most of us to use spell check after we’ve composed our message. You should also make it standard procedure to reread your entire message before sending. Often times, you’ll notice words which have been left out, grammar that’s incorrect and worst of all – words witch our spilled write butt knot used inn the write weigh. (Note, that this last sentence runs through a spell checker perfectly.) How many times have you caught something too late, making your only option to curse at your spell-checking software!

3. Copy back salient points when replying to an earlier message.
Most people receive hundreds of emails every week. When you combine that with face-to-face meetings and phone calls, it’s dangerous to assume your recipient will remember your earlier exchange. Which of these messages has the greater chance for reader confusion?

• "Sure, sounds fine... Please proceed."
• You wrote: Hi Jody, Are you okay with the proposed color scheme on the new brochure? I'd like to print it next week.

"Sure, sounds fine... Please proceed." It’s frustrating when someone sends you an email, with a specific answer but you’re unable to recall the original issue. This problem is largely avoidable by copying a portion of the original message alluding to the context.

4. Use specific subject line descriptions.
Since many email messages go back and forth several times over the course of many weeks, it’s important to accurately describe what the reader will find inside.
Considering the level of spam and anti-spam software in place today, you can’t afford to risk your message not being delivered because of a generic or poorly worded subject line. A subject line such as, “What do you think” doesn’t tell the recipient much. “Need your suggestions for options re: acct#45619 – Robinson Inc.” is more specific.

5. Realize that once your message is sent, THERE’S NO GETTING IT BACK!
Email communication in the workplace has been around about ten years. Before the 90s, if you composed a letter later deemed too harsh or in poor taste, there were more steps involved before the message was sent. Today, the stakes are much higher. People can literally ruin their career with a single 60-second lapse in judgment, by sending the wrong message to someone.

6. Practice the 24-hour rule when you’re upset.
It’s never a good idea to send an email when you’re angry. We’ve all been guilty of this. In the heat of the moment we type up a literary bombast. A message that will reduce the recipient to mush. We even reread it, and we’re actually sort of proud at how powerful the wording is. We imagine the recipient opening and cringing as he/she reads our words. Then we send it. Only later, after we calm down, we revisit the message and realize that we dramatically overreacted. But it’s too late to do anything now, except apologize and try to mend fences. This is more common than you think.

If you compose an email in anger, wait a predetermined period of time before sending it. If your emotions are legit, then your issue will still be there tomorrow. But in 95% of the cases, you’ll be glad you waited and toned things down after you’ve gain the perspective that can only come with some additional time.

7. Avoid sh-cuts and abbr. in biz email msgs.
Anyone with a teenager knows you practically need a CIA decoder chart to understand the abbreviations and shortcuts that are popular in email, pagers, text messages and instant messages. These cutesy short cuts and misspellings are ill advised to use in any corporate context, no matter if your customer is external or internal. Even common shortcuts like LOL (laughing out loud), BRB (be right back), 2 (to) and u r (you are) are simply too casual for most business communication. What’s hip to one sender can be read as flip and disrespectful by another reader. Since a casual message to a coworker could easily be forwarded, it’s best to practice the same high level of professionalism no matter who you're writing to.

8. Don’t Forward Viral Messages.
What’s that you say? You’d only forward important messages on to your coworkers and friends? Not so fast. Unlike obvious computer viruses that involve actual destructive code, many messages are viral in nature, in that they are purposefully crafted so you’ll send them on to friends with the idea that you weren’t positive if this was real but wanted to be sure they saw it just in case! Although not usually harmful, these emails prey on normally smart individuals desire to inform others.

If you are the recipient of an email message you think is relevant to your friends and family, run it by this test: Copy and paste a few words from the message into google.com along with the word “hoax”. If the returns come back showing articles claiming the message is a fake, save everyone in your address book some time by hitting the delete key! The same rule applies to jokes and pictures which would be deemed as inappropriate by your employer.

While there may not be a silver bullet that saves us from an onslaught of never ending messages, common sense practices can make our business email correspondence more effective and productive every working day.

2. The Great Sales and Training Divide

In most organizations there is a fundamental disconnect between sales and training. Different areas of focus, unaligned goals, and inconsistent metrics keep these areas divided. Learning and development (L&D) professionals do far more than provide product training, but are they seen as a strategic asset by your sales organizations? Do the right people appreciate the role that L&D can play in improving sales effectiveness?

Sales people are skeptical about training. Recalling their own experience, sales leaders see training as a waste of time, rarely producing any sustained skill improvement or measurable results – all while taking their employees out of the field. So what can be done about this skepticism and disconnect? How can cooperation, respect and mutual support be fostered between the sales and training organizations? The answer lies in establishing a common vision of success. And since sales is (a) skeptical, and (b) the revenue producer, the initial heavy lifting is left to L&D.

Access Huthwaite's latest white paper, "The Great Sales and Training Divide," to see how you can better align your organization's sales and training efforts. Note: you will be prompted to create a username and password to access this white paper, provided by Huthwaite.



3. Visit Business Training Library at the 2007 SHRM Conference in Las Vegas

Stop by booth #1472 at this year's SHRM Conference at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Ask us about our new Streaming Video Library ... coming soon!

4. Course Review: Insights to Better Mentoring

Course Group
Coaching & Counseling Employees

Course Code
016109

Media
Video or DVD

Course comes with Study and Facilitator's Guide. CD Includes: PowerPoint Slides, Program Transcript, Facilitation Guide and Handouts.

Course Overview
Mentoring comes in a variety of styles, shapes and colors. Some organizations have structured programs that pair mentors and mentees and set out an agenda for them. Others have less formal approaches, facilitating and supporting mentoring relationships but not defining them. Regardless of the way mentoring is structured, there are certain fundamentals that will make these relationships more effective. That is what we seek to explore in Insights to Better Mentoring.

Also available in video and Spanish formats.

• Bronze Telly Award Winner in the Training Category
• Aurora Award Winner - “Platinum Best of Show”

Target Audience
Any employee involved in a business mentoring relationship


Expected Duration
26 Minutes


Debbie's Rating

5 Stars (Out of 5)

Debbie's Review
Many companies and organizations today have established some form of mentoring for their employees. Whether it is a formal or informal program within the organization, a mentor program can encourage both mentors and mentees to work towards improving themselves, their careers, and their organization.

Insights to Better Mentoring is a program designed to take a mentoring program to the next level. With real-life examples as the basis for the program, employees can learn how to work towards a common goal during the mentoring program. This program discusses how both parties can get the most out of a mentoring program by setting aside regular times to meet where they can listen and share experiences with each other. Encouragement, care, and creativity within the mentoring program are other areas designed to make it a success for both parties.

Although the video portion of the program does not give instructions on how to establish a mentoring program and how to select a mentor, it does show examples of how other organizations have been successful in developing these relationships. On the other hand, the Facilitator’s Guide gives more direction on how to establish and conduct such a program. This course would be great for all audiences as anyone can participate in a mentoring program whether they are trying to realize their full potential as a mentee, or enhance their leadership skills as a mentor.

Debbie Ricks is an Account Manager at Business Training Library.

Interested in previewing the award-winning Insights to Better Mentoring course? Start a free demo of this coaching & counseling training program today!

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