My Magic Power: Action-Oriented Emails

Activator. Communication. Individualization. Responsibility. Achiever.

Those are my top five strengths according to Clifton Strengths Assessment. If you've never taken a strength finders quiz or haven't done it in a while, I personally recommend it. It's a tool, just like anything else, not a magical horoscope or personality quiz like those found on facebook. But if you put your earnestness into it, you can get some insights out of it.

I helped get traction towards resolution on a problem one of my team members had this past week. The problem had been lingering on with no progress for weeks, and my team member wasn't even sure of the status or whose court the ball was in, per se. Ultimately, more information was needed, and my team member was able to obtain the information needed, and so volunteered to do so in order to get one step closer to resolution. And then, he thanked me for my help; and in his appreciation, I saw relief. Relief that someone heard him, and actually did something. Relief that he wasn't alone. Relief that he had support. I'm a new manager in this organization, and there are a world of problems for me to solve, which is exciting, but also, daunting. Yet, all I can do is tackle them one at a time, the most important first, and do my best to, well, do my best.
So when my team member thanked me, it made me reflect on what it was I actually had done. Truthfully, it wasn't much. Not to me, anyways. My team member thought the issue was pending a decision or direction from the director of quality. Since the director of quality happens to sit a few doors down from my office, I popped into his office a couple times that day to see if I could chat with him, but I kept missing him. I always prefer face-to-face communications over emails, but in this case, I didn't want the issue to sit while I kept missing him. So I took my team member's email and forwarded it to the director of quality with a short, concise intro, request for action and offer to provide additional info as needed.

To be honest, while my team member had provided some info to me over the phone, I didn't fully understand the problem, just that it was something he had attempted to address and it had not been resolved yet. So about an hour later, when a quality engineer stopped by my office to ask for more info, I didn't have much to provide. He said the director had forward  the email to him and asked him to work on it. I was able to get my employee on the phone to answer the questions that I couldn't, and the three of us talked through next steps in order to resolve the issue.

What had I done? Well, to start off, I had seen no evidence from the email chain that the director of quality had even known about the issue, let alone anyone in quality; it had been assumed that he or someone from his team were involved. So in some ways, all I did was connect the dots. But I suspect there's more to it than that. The whole organization seems to be email-happy, meaning they will shoot off emails to 15 or 20 people, and the emails will circulate and go back and forth, and to their credit, some problems do get resolved in this manner. But when we're bombarded with emails, we tend to look for shortcuts, and seeing long or vague emails likely means we'll pass over those messages with the intention of coming back to them later, and later never comes. Or worse, maybe we see so many people on copy and assume someone else will address it, or they'll let you know if they need your help, meanwhile they're assuming you're working on it simply because you're on the email chain. So the difference between those lengthy emails to 20 people and mine, was that mine was directed at one person, and was concise, with a call to action.

This is my super power, I concluded. It's the Activator that calls someone to action. It's the strength of Communication that enables me to deliver the right message. It's Individualization - knowing how to reach the right person. And it's accepting my share of the Responsibility and Achievement. My team member had been sending emails, but they weren't reaching the right people or stirring them to action.

However, all is not lost if you don't happen to be an Activator-Communicator-Individualizer-Responsible-Achiever. You don't have to have that exact combination of strengths to develop this super power. In fact, it's not a super power at all - it's a skill. And like most skills, you can practice them and get better at them.
If an issue isn't getting the right level of attention on it, ask yourself why. Has the importance not been clearly articulated or understood? Are the right people aware of the issue? Are you SURE the right people are aware of the issue? As I mentioned before, I usually prefer face-to-face discussions, and I think I would have gotten similar or better results had I been able to catch the director of quality for a quick chat - I may have learned then that he actually had not been aware of the issue at all, or perhaps he had breezed by the email because he didn't realize it was needing an action from quality. If you're not getting results from repetitive emails, stop the emails and go have a conversation, or set up a meeting if you have to. At most, allow yourself only two unanswered emails before you try a different tactic.
There are other reasons the issue isn't getting addressed. Maybe the email communications are too long and confusing; if someone reads it and isn't clear what the problem is or how he/she can help, then the email may be ignored, or put on hold for "later" and eventually forgotten. 

The absolute best advice I can give you when your emails or requests are seemingly ignored is to just ask yourself how you could do better. You can't control others, but you can control your approach, and so that is always where there is opportunity. Beyond that, here are some specific things to keep in mind to make the most of your requests. 

Tips for Action-Oriented Emails:

• Address the email only to the person or people who really need to do something. When you start copying a person's boss, or your boss, or a ton of other people, sometimes recipients feel like they're being trapped, or that they have to respond quickly rather than helpfully because everyone will see the response.
• Provide context. Especially if you are writing to someone you don't know well or at all, make sure you provide a some information about how you decided he/she would be the  best person to help. Briefly explain the situation so that the recipient doesn't have to dig through the email to find out what you're talking about.
• Be specific in your request, preferably writing the name of the person from whom you are requesting help, and as much as you can about what action you'd like to see completed. If I say, "Go figure out why this isn't working," that's pretty vague and could be quite daunting. But if I say, "Can you help me understand why I'm seeing this number on this screen?" that's much more specific and provides a clear expectation of what you want help with.
• Be concise. Attach supporting documents or forward emails with additional information, and reference the additional information, but keep the body of your message short. If there are more than one request or a number of steps involved, use bullets or numbering to avoid long paragraphs and help break up the requests.
• Be humble. If you're asking for help, it's okay to lean into your lack of expertise. You don't necessarily need to flatter the recipient, but reference why he or she is the right person to take the next step. You could say, "I'm looking for quality's expertise here on what the next step is to resolve."
• Be helpful. Offer to provide more information or make yourself available for a discussion. There is nothing worse than feeling like someone is "throwing it over the wall" and dumping something on you, so don't do that to other people. Most problems require some sort of cross-functional collaboration, otherwise they wouldn't be problems and we would just fix them, right?

Absolute Don't's for Action-Oriented Emails:

• Forward an email without providing a (useful) reason.
• Insult or attack. Not just in emails, just don't do it.
• Complain or whine. If you feel you have a valid concern, it's definitely better to address verbally if you can. If you just want to let off steam, do it with someone you trust and let them know you are just need to vent for a minute.
• Convolute the issue with past problems or off-topic issues, like this: "It's just like Fred to go off and ignore his work queue, just like he did last week when I needed him to approve my request."
• Assert you know the answer, make commands or USE ALL CAPS AND BOLD AND UNDERLINE AND COLORS ALL TOGETHER.

 

Level-Up - Tips for Honing this Skill Even More:

Practice Individualization. 

This is all about learning how people work. You have to learn about the specific person. If you're unsure, you can ask colleagues whom you trust what advice they might have about working with this specific person. You could go out of your way to ask them how they're doing and try to develop a relationship with them (again, this is much easier and more natural face-to-face). If one tactic doesn't work, it's usually not because they're a big jerk. Try another tactic.

Provide a reasonable due date (and a reason for it). 

This is about setting expectations, and actually gives you a chance to emphasize the importance of the request. Many people respond well to due dates, because it allows them to plan out what they can do in order to support their response. It also allows them to prioritize if they have a lot of requests. It is important, though, that your due date isn't unreasonable. Saying "ASAP" is useless, so scrub that from your vocabulary. Sending a request at 5 pm on Wednesday and requesting an answer by 8 am Thursday is also a little tough in most cases, because you don't know that the individual will even receive it in time to respond, let alone have sufficient time to process it along with their other regular tasks, etc.  You could say something like, "Please let me know next steps by COB Tuesday, since I have to report out on the numbers to corporate first thing Wednesday morning." It can also be helpful to put the due date in the Subject line, like, "Chemical imbalance issue - need action by COB Tue" so that it is clear in the emails heading what the expectation is.

Propose possible solutions. 

I challenge my teams to come to me with proposals instead of problems. This is a good practice in any scenario. It could be that really have no idea, but often, if you think about it enough, you could at least come up with a proposal, even if it turns out being wrong (and that's okay, remember the "humble" thing, you're admitting you're not the expert and that's why you're seeking help). Often, when an expert receives a proposed solution, they can have an immediate feel for whether or not it will work. When given a proposal, an expert could choose to accept the proposal, modify it slightly, or provide a completely different proposal. In any case, you've done some of the heavy lifting for them, which allows them to see more clearly a path to move forward. Providing a propose solution also has the added benefit of showing the recipient that you've thought through this issue, and aren't just passing it on like a hot potato to get it out of your hands.

Use with Caution (Expert Level):

Ask stupid questions. 

Sometimes I take the "humble" thing to an extreme when my initial messaging doesn't work, and I'll ask "stupid questions" to elicit the kind of thinking I'm looking for. Some people like to tell you the 30-year history of why this widget needs that button, and they end up not answering the question or addressing the issue. When dealing with this kind of person, sometimes you have to really simplify the questions, and ask them one at a time, even. Asking something like, "What functional role is responsible for pushing that button?" is a lot more specific than, "What are the roles and responsibilities of all involved with this widget?" This is definitely a tactic you only want to use when you're getting nowhere with higher-level conversations and questions. You certainly don't want to ask stupid questions right out of the gate and all the time, because then people might actually start to believe that you're stupid.

Name drop. 

Let's face it, there are people out there who avoid work unless their feet are held to the fire. Rather than escalating the issue to their manager or putting the bosses on copy, sometimes it is simply enough to say the name of a person of importance. "Fred Wilkinson asked me to get with you on the best solution..." or, "I need to present this to Bob Chambers next week and I really don't want him to think we have a broken process here." Depending on who those made up names are in the situation, that could carry sufficient weight to scare a person into action. However, this should be  used as a last resort or in cases where you know this is the only way to get something done with this individual. Used too much, this could become a "boy who cried wolf" scenario and lose its effectivity.

Underline, bold, italicize or color specific words.

I rarely do this, but when I do, it's to highlight just one or two important things when I feel like there's a lot going on in the email and I can trim it down sufficiently. This can be to highlight a due date, a part of a question or action, or to help clear up a misunderstanding. I would recommend using only one, or at most, two, font alterations; so either you use bold and underline, or bold and red font, or just bold, for example. If responding to a lot of questions, sometimes I'll say, "See responses below in blue." and then actually answer the questions in blue in the forwarded email rather than repeating the email. This could include responding to a question with a clarifying question.