Stop Using These Words In Your Emails

Do you know how you sound in emails?
Without the benefit of being able to hear people’s vocal
inflections or see their faces, it can be challenging to
interpret how the person on the other end of an email is
feeling. Emoticons and exclamation points can only take
you so far (especially in a business email), and in fact,
sometimes formal business language can start to sound,
well, negative without context.
A Wall Street Journal article on enigmatic email tells the
story of a consultant who sent a detailed project plan to
her client by email and received only a one-word
response: “Noted."
She feared he was angry or disappointed, when in fact,
he was thrilled to be able to clear the issue from his
inbox with so little effort.
So how can you ensure you get your message across
without seeming negative?
Accentuate the positive.
Overall, the word choices you make add up to the tone
of your communications. And when you consistently
choose negative words and phrases, your emails will
sound terse, condescending, or angry.
Negativity is never good and always sends out negative
vibes. Even if you feel negative about a situation, you
can still make an effort to turn your emails into more
positive messages — which usually get better responses.
Related: One Simple Trick To Have Successful
Conversations (LinkedIn)
Words like cannot, damage, do not, error, fail,
impossible, little value, loss, mistake, not, problem,
refuse, stop, unable to, unfortunately, escalation, urgent,
never, inability and unsound all have a strong negative
connotation.
Take this sentence for example:
Unfortunately, it looks impossible to finish the project on
time because of the problems some people are causing
with submitting their work late.
That’s a lot of negative words for one sentence. But you
could easily convey the same information in a more
positive way, like this:
Can everyone turn in their portion of the project by
Thursday so that we can complete the work on time and
hit the deadline.
As you can see, it’s all about the words you choose that
conveys your tone. If the boss in the Wall Street Journal
example above had even responded with, “Thank you!”
instead of “Noted,” his employee probably would not
have worried whether she had done a good job.
Try to phrase your message using more positive terms
like benefit, it is best to, issue, matter, progress, success
and valuable.
Dos and Don’ts
An easy way to fall into the negativity trap is to start
listing out things people shouldn’t do. Don’t leave
uneaten food in the office refrigerator. Don’t be late to
the meeting. Even saying “don’t forget” is more negative
than saying “remember.”
Instead of telling others what not to do, try telling them
what they should do instead. Please take your lunches
home at the end of the day. Please arrive for the
meeting five minutes early.
People are much more likely to comply with a positive
request than a negative complaint on their behavior.
When in doubt, spell it out.
Related: Big Data For Small Business - Why It Matters!
(LinkedIn)
If you find that people frequently misinterpret your
emails, you might need to be more explicit. There’s no
harm in actually saying how you feel when
communicating with colleagues, especially those with
whom you have a good relationship.
For example, rather than using terse, negative language
in an email about project scheduling because you’re sick
of the software you have to use to schedule meetings,
you might come out and say, “This scheduling system is
frustrating to me, but it looks like we can meet on
Friday…”
That way, the recipient can understand that you’re
feeling negative about something other than him.
Have you ever had a major email miscommunication?
Was tone to blame? I’d love to hear your stories in the
comments below.