Send An Email Or Have A Conversation?

March 29, 2010

Interview with Stacey Hanke, author of the book Yes You Can!: Everything You Need From A to Z to Influence Others to Take Action

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Mike Carruthers:
Should you send an email or talk to the person, careful what you chose because you could end up in trouble.

Stacey Hanke:
Bottom line when in doubt always either pick up the phone first or have a face-to-face conversation – we need to understand that once it’s in writing it’s always there.
 

Communications expert Stacey Hanke, author of the book Yes You Can! , says it’s easy to hide behind an email or a text because that’s less confrontational but sometimes it’s just not appropriate.

Anytime you’re negotiating fees or maybe it’s a situation – salaries, bonuses, that should always be done face-to-face. Anytime you want to build a relationship do it face-to-face. Is there’s already conflict between you and the other individual or maybe there’s a conflict of how both of you view a topic it should be done face-to-face.

And if you still decide to send an email or text first ask yourself…

“How will my listener, my receiver respond to this message?” And if there’s even a slight chance that they could misinterpret your message - is it better in that case to have that face-to-face?

And Stacey has a suggestion for when you write any email that could save you a lot of problems.

One thing I always recommend the individuals do is the very last thing you should ever do with that email is insert the to address. Because you’d never want to accidentally send it, it’s not completed, or you’re either not sure if you’re going to send the message yet.

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here