Videos - Archive

Top tips from Mesmo Consultancy (and Associates) on how to save time and improve business and personal performance by ‘Taking Control of your Inbox’ and using proper business email etiquette.

Business Email Etiquette – Stop Email Ping-Pong

Fed up with endless rounds of email ping-pong going no where? Watch video number four of Mesmo Consultancy’s new series on Business Email Management and Etiquette: top tips to stop playing email ping-pong.

First, these top tips will help you improve business and personal performance and productivity. Second, stopping playing email ping-pong will enable you to reduce email overload and improve well-being.

Tags: business email etiquette, Business email management, email overload, Email ping-pong, Mesmo Consultancy, Save time dealing with email

Business Email Management and Etiquette – Articles of Note March 2017

This month is like a box of licorice allsorts with articles a range or articles on business email management and business email etiquette. They including, the business email etiquette of using the Out of Office Message, best business email etiquette for opening and closing emails, social media gives us more networking but are we any happier and a new report on mobile/flexible working. Read on.

How to master the almost impossible etiquette of the Out of Office Message. Do you feel annoyed when you receive an Out of Office message and conversely does your OOO annoy others? It seems that there is a whole psychology to what we say and how we use the OOO.
Is it correct to use ‘Dear Sirs’ when emailing several people? Clearly it depends on the context. of the business email as discussed in this Quora post by Dr Seeley.
Why close emails with ‘best regards’. Time and again in workshops the question is asked, what is the best email etiquette to close an email? Here are some suggestions from another of Monica’s Quora posts. Don’t forget you can benchmark your own business email etiquette here.
How to add accents using an IoS device (ipda/iphone etc). Business emails sent from mobile devices still need to look professional. This email etiquette tip will help you when typing names and words with accents.
Internet on BA flights cleared for take-off. Do you value to opportunity to disconnect when flying and do some blue sky thinking (excuse the pun). Well that might be about to end for those flying BA. You will either have to be strong willed or change airlines!
Working anytime, anywhere: The effects on the world of work. A new report from the International Labour Organisation is invaluable for those involved in mobile/flexible working programmes. Although, it’s long and not for the faint heart and with a short attention span.
How the world became hocked on social media. Social media has expanded our networks but has it made us any happier? Whilst we are better informed and connected than ever before, we are no happier and in some less happy than the generation who had no social media. This article reviews three new books on the topic and is a must for any reader tasked with research in this area. Although one cannot help feeling it’s all been said before by Sherry Turkle’s ‘Reclaiming Conversation and in ‘Alone Together’.

Did you spot an article on business email management and etiquette which you can share to help us all reduce email overload?

Tags: anywhere, business email etiquette, Business email management, ilO, out of office message, Quora, Sherry Turkle, Work anytime

Emails from Venus or Mars

On International Women’s Day, it is timely to look at back at some research carried out by Mesmo Consultancy several years ago.

Not surprisingly, it showed that the differences between how men and women operate in business (and socially) carries over into how they communicate. For an in-depth review see Gender and Communication at Work edited by Mary Barrett and Marilyn Davidson and Managing in the Email Office by Monica Seeley and Gerard Hargreaves.

Meanwhile, here is a brief summary of the main difference.

Criterion	Men and email	Women and email
Deleting	Often	Hoarders keeping too much just in case
Subject line	Limited	More accurate
Salutation	Often none	Nearly always included
Tone	Terse	Flowery
Content	Shorter, crisper and to the point	Rambling and often flowery
Gossip	Often – the main culprits email media disasters	Rarely
Imagery	Rarely included, but occasional includes text-speak emoticons	Often use stationary and ‘smiley’s’
Sign-off	Professional, bland but can be terse	Flowery, often uses colour and fancy fonts

What as changed. Judging by the many emails I see, very little.

For more information and especially how to bridge the gap see first published in Brilliant Email.

Tags: Brilliant Email, business email etiquette, Gerard Hargreaves, International Women's Day, Men's email etiquette, Women's email etiquette

Email Etiquette – 5S Formula for Writing Emails

How can you entice people to respond properly and in full to your emails? Try the 5S Formula for writing business emails which are polite, professional and compelling without being either arrogant nor pushy.

Still having trouble getting people to respond to your emails? Click here to benchmark the rest of your email etiquette.

For more tips like these either buy on of my books such as ‘Brilliant Email’ or ‘Taking Control of Your Inbox’ or come on one of Mesmo Consultancy’s email management workshops.

Tags: Answer my email, Brilliant Email, Business email, business email etiquette, Get emails answered, Mesmo Consultancy, Politley ask people to respond to emails, Taking Control of Your Inbox

Email addiction and mental health

Email addiction and mental health go hand in hand. Email addiction is a major cause of stress and hence poor mental health. There are plenty of organisations to help you cope with well documented sources of addiction such as alcohol and substance. But what of chronic email addiction and mental health? Compulsive checking of emails is often hidden behind phrases like ‘my clients/colleagues expect me to be on-line’, ‘it’s part of my job’, ‘what if I miss an email from a key contact’. Are these reasons justified or just a cover up for deeper problems such as email addiction?

We all have extraordinarily busy periods when it can be prudent to check your email frequently and outside normal office hours (eg year end, major project closing, takeover bid etc). For more normal days, what does checking your email every few minutes really tell us?

Maybe you work in an email dependent culture where people rarely walk and talk. Maybe you feel insecure, anxious or lonely. In that case it is symptomatic of a mental health problem. Tackling email addiction should be a key priority for every organisation and not just during mental health week.

At a personal level click here to check your level of email-addiction. Then use the top tips below to start breaking the cycle.

Switch off all those new email alerts. Click here to see how to still see emails from key clients.
Limit the number of times you check your email, for example every 30 minutes. Then gradually extend that gap by 10 minutes each week until you reach a more realistic no-email period for your role eg one hour.
Fine yourself if you dip-in between the no-email periods.
Celebrate every time you reach you target time with no dips.
Tell people what you are doing and provide them with an incentive to talk to you instead of using email.

Still addicted, then seek more help. We can help with email addiction. For the mental health aspects talk to a specialist.

If you work in an email dependent culture then perhaps it is time to make colleagues aware and especially the potential cost to their well-being and mental health.

Tags: Compulsive checking email, Email Addicton, email culture, Email dependant culture, Mental Health, Mental Health Awareness Week