“Please hand me that document,” can easily be taken multiple ways depending on how someone says that. If the voice is loud, I might sense an attack. If the accent is on the “please,” it may sound condescending to me. And if it is said with a nice voice, I will probably sense sincerity. Tone and volume actually have more to do with how words are interpreted than the words themselves.

So it should be no wonder why email remains the most popular form of miscommunication in the 21st century. When I talk with people about leadership, I often hear a sigh of resignation about how to encourage people to follow the direction they set. A recent dialog with a co-worker is not unlike many dialogs I hear:

Co-worker: “Andy, you wouldn’t believe how tense the relationship is between several of my team members and me. I am setting the right goals and make reasonable requests of them.”

Me: “How do you make the requests?”

Co-worker: “Email is the most effective way because of travel schedules.”

Me: “Effective? I think you mean efficient.”

Email is a proven destroyer of morale. The reason? The tone with which we write may not be the tone with which people read it. Written communication is extremely delicate. There’s a reason many people write books which are never published. It’s hard enough for people to write who are schooled in the skill. Imagine how hard it is for business people not schooled in writing to convey the proper tone and volume via email in the heat of the moment. It is no wonder so many emails are not read with the intention the writer meant.

My default position after many years of screwing up email communication is to call a meeting any time I need to deliver a message which may have the risk of misinterpretation. It slows things down because it is less efficient, but it makes for better relationships, deeper discussions, and a more enjoyable work environment.

This entry was posted by Andy Heyman, Chief Operating Officer on Monday, July 27th, 2009 at 9:17 am and is filed under Executive. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.