How to Use Email to Position Yourself as More Senior

Idea

Every communication and interaction you have with others provides them with a window on who you are and how you operate. And from your perspective, these interactions are an opportunity to demonstrate your interest, capabilities and professionalism.

This most definitely applies to the use of email. In fact, the way someone chooses to operate in email often signals how senior they are and determines the impact they make.

First, senior people tend to be succinct in their emails, and to appreciate brevity in the emails they receive. Less is more.

Second, senior people tend to use email “for good, not evil”, as I like to say. That means sending emails primarily for 3 purposes:

1. Congratulating people
2. Disseminating information
3. Making a request (when it is impractical to do so in person)

All three are positive or neutral communications, and while you would ideally do them in person, email is a reasonable option.

What’s not on the list is conveying criticism or anything negative or tricky since too much can be lost in translation in a one-way written communication. There are many things best done in person, or at least by phone. That way you can make sure the other person has understood your message and you can make midcourse corrections.

Example

When I was coming up the ranks, I was responsible for the details – proofreading the presentation materials, making sure the cars showed up on time to pick up the client, checking every number in the spreadsheet. My emails were similarly detailed. In fact, I was proud of the information I could convey – and rightly so.

However, the more senior I got, the less appropriate it became for me to “own” so much detail. Or more accurately, to be seen to be that much in the weeds. I also saw that our department head often replied to my lengthy briefing emails with just a couple of words, such as “Good work” or “Thanks, May”.

While I was hardly ready to be the department head, I did have the room to find the happy medium between the detail I needed to convey and the two-word email.

The solution that worked for me was the executive summary plus appendix email:

• A 3-4 line email that gave the bottom line in summary form, and referred to “more detail below in case that’s helpful”.
• My signature.
• The background and/or details, summarized into sections with section headers in bold.

Action

Before you send an email today:

• Check to see whether it’s something appropriate to communicate in written form (where you have no control over how it is interpreted, and no chance to address misunderstanding), and
• See if you can keep it succinct
• Experiment with formats that work for you

How does this change the way you communicate and the impact you make?