Randy Joy & Co.

Email conversations are notorious for misunderstandings.   When penning in a LOL, you might assume that the reader knows you are jibing at them, and Laughing Out Loud.  However, there are some email novices who might think that LOL stands for something entirely different, even maybe dreaming it might be reading Lots Of Love.

Okay, so now I have you ROFL (rolling on floor laughing at the absurdity of misreading LOL).  However, you must also ROFL in business — Reach Over and Fone Live – because emails can be ever so ambiguous and cause so many misunderstanding.  One employee writes a short email and another employee interprets it as yelling.  A continual brawl starts in email with hurt feelings.

Emotions could possibly allay some situations.  In our two employee email example, supposing that misunderstood email came with a cute little wink at the end.   A wink can mean that the employee who sent the email had meant it sarcastically.  It could mean playfulness and just a nice email.  It could mean the sender had a speck in his  virtual eye that he is clearing out.  In other words, in plain clear King’s English, emails are good up to a point — and beyond that there must be clearer communication, called live talk.

The most important skill to have in any relationship, specifically in your business office, is seamless and complete communication.  It would have taken but a moment for these employees above to pick up their phone and talk it out.  However, how many of us really do that?

In my past businesses I chose to have weekly meetings with my employees to ensure everyone was on the same page and focused on the same mission.

Tags: Management