Here is a guest post by Lauren Bailey – please share your comments about it below:
There will occasionally come a time in your illustrious career in which you will have to send a strongly worded email. There are various ways to go about sending such emails, and some ways can get you fired, and other ways will get the needed message across.
Here is a situation that I encountered when I used to work for a research organization as an office assistant. A researcher received an email from our boss in which she was berated for not using correct grammar in her email correspondence. The email was five pages long. Although it did not contain any expletives, the verbal abuse was obvious. The researcher sobbed for hours and later quit.
The key to sending an assertive email, first of all, is knowing whether or not you need to send it at all. Many of our inner novelists come out when something was not done correctly and we want our co-workers or employees to fix it, but the worst time to sit down at your computer and send an email is when you are angry. This is because you might just say something you will later regret, since anger temporarily cuts off circulation to that part of your brain that does rational things. What’s more, the situation may be better suited to a face-to-face interaction, simply because in-person communication is more effective in most situations anyway, especially when you need a person to change his behavior or performance.
Another thing to keep in mind is to never send a nasty email, because no matter what your co-worker or employee did, no one deserves to hear negative criticism. Begin your email as you would any, with a polite greeting, and use also a courteous closing line. Be sure to get concerns or complains down politely first, then go back and add anything that you can think of that you appreciate about the recipient.
Sending an assertive email does, of course, have a time and a place. If done correctly, you can encourage a worker to effectively change their behavior for the better. Just remember that vitriol never changed anyone’s mind about anything. So if you want something to get done, check your annoyance or frustration at the door before hitting the “Compose Email” button.
This guest post is contributed by Lauren Bailey, who regularly writes for best online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: blauren99 @gmail.com.
