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Business Communications

  1. Refer to organization's Policies & Procedures
  2. Understand your organization'�s culture
  3. Use the established stylebook/style sheet in correspondence
  4. Taking neutral or objective tone to discuss the Strengths, Weaknesses, Threats and Opportunities of topics, programs, plans, etc.
  5. Ask yourself, is this a safe place for discussion or does the audience want to hear ONLY what they want to hear?

Suggested Material

Other references:

Look Your Best...Polish Your Image...Mind Your Manners

Sales & Marketing Management/Equation Research October 2003 Issue

Personal Appearance

  1. 30% of executives say that customers have commented negatively on the appearance of company representatives
  2. 49% of representatives have encountered prejudice from customers because of the way they dress
  3. 48% say that physical image is more important today than it was in the '90s
  4. 38% of companies believe they have lost business because of the reps appearance
  5. 61% of customers are turned off by representatives that use profanity or smoke

Re-Invent Your Image

Author Karen Lawson, in her book The Art of Influencing, observes that your image is based not only on appearance, but on modeling, ethics and etiquette.

Formality VS. Laid Back

  1. More formality is expected today
  2. The casual approach is out

Image Communications

Questions that must be asked:

  1. Are there legal ramifications to my writing?
  2. Are there departmental/corporate consequences to my writing?
  3. How will this E-mail affect my professional image?
  4. Am I handling this diplomatically?
  5. Do I understand the Corporate or Department Agenda (Stated/Perceived/Unspoken/Real)

Communication Taboos

  1. Profanity
  2. Rudeness
  3. Arrogance
  4. Insensitivity
  5. Bullying
  6. Deceptiveness
  7. Disagreeableness
  8. Retaliation
  9. Dishonesty
  10. Obnoxiousness

Office Blunders

  1. Handling personal e-business at work
  2. Managing your home-based business on company time and company computer.
  3. Misappropriating company resources
  4. Manipulating situations

E-mail

  1. Email should be used for quick questions or to give factual information.
  2. It should never be used to give feedback or criticism.

54 Subject Lines & E-mail Faux Pas

  1. Leaving the Subject Line blank
  2. Using a dull message in the subject line
  3. Using an unclear language in subject line
  4. Meeting date and location or Project Title and date, etc.
  5. Not addressing the person by name
  6. Just answering a question without quoting an excerpt from the message.
  7. Your company will probably have a style for responding to questions
  8. Not tailoring the message to the receiver
  9. Pushing the send key before you check spelling and grammar
  10. Not checking your email box at least daily
  11. Not responding in a timely manner (within 24 hours)
  12. Failing to say "thank you"
  13. Discussing sensitive or potentially inflammatory issues via email
  14. Using FLAME to make a point
  15. Discussing confidential topics by email
  16. Forwarding chain letters, jokes and get-rich-quick schemes, etc.
  17. Using cutsie abbreviations
  18. Overloading e-mail with acronyms
  19. Overusing "High Priority"
  20. Removing original message instead of replying to it
  21. Writing in all CAPS
  22. Not avoiding large"to" lists or "cc" lists
  23. Discounting the need for a disclaimer to protect your organization
  24. Not keeping verbiage gender neutral
  25. Discounting readability (using only single spaces)
  26. Always double space your points
  27. Review your points: are they clear, concise and credible?
  28. Ask yourself, "Would I want to read or receive this?"
  29. Using trendy font & hard to read colors (Arial Type font is easiest to read on line)
  30. Using email stationary or emoticon regularly
  31. Using the Bc: & Cc: freely
  32. Forgetting there is no such thing as email privacy
  33. Discounting the POWER of brevity; rambling on and on
  34. Throwing civility and politeness to the wind
  35. Writing an emotional or volatile email that bruises egos, wounds individuals, inflames situations or damages reputations
  36. Not taking the time to set up a signature line with name, phone number and mailing address and even possibly a link to your website.
  37. Using Tabs in emails (tab keys can jumble information so use the indent key instead).
  38. Emailing files larger than 100KB (it can lock up laptops and systems)
  39. Not including a link when you mention a Website
  40. Forwarding all virus alerts and selected junk email
  41. Writing the text of your message in lines of more than 60 characters
  42. Belittle your reader
  43. Using a very light color of print on a white background
  44. Using wallpaper that moves back and forth - it can cause a dizzy feeling
  45. Rushing to respond first without thoughts fully collected
  46. Making the print size smaller than 10 point
  47. Always using attachments (some company's do not accepts attachments)
  48. Using profanity in an email
  49. Gossiping about co-workers
  50. Failing to ask yourself, What is the purpose of this email? What do I want to accomplish in my response?
  51. Disregarding the fact that your email responses speak to your professional image
  52. Criticize often in your email
  53. Giving off a superior tone
  54. Communicating your apathy toward a problems, person or situation
  55. Failing to remember that it is necessary to write about what interests the reade
  56. Overloading emails with the word, "I"
  57. Omitting capitalization and punctuation & using lower case i throughout the message
  58. Receiving an attachment with not comments or reference
  59. Not re-reading before you hit the send key

E-mail Phrases

5 E-mail Commandments

  1. E-mail only those people to whom your message actually pertains (rather than your entire address book).
  2. Make a point of responding to messages promptly.
  3. Always use spell-check and grammar-check before sending messages.
  4. Include your phone number in your message.
  5. Learn that e-mail should be used for business rather than personal use.

Business Etiquette By Ann Marie Sabath 2002

Misunderstanding

  1. Humor, innuendo and sarcasm can be misunderstood.
  2. Guard the tone of your e-mails.

What's Believed

By: Dr. Albert Mehrabian UCLA Communication Researcher