How to write effective E-Mails at Work
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 พ.ค. 2024
- Learn how to write effective e-mails at work with this video. Professional E-Mail writing is key in a professional services job working in consulting at McKinsey, BCG, Bain or a similar firm. Learning how to write a business E-Mail in English is an important skill in management consulting. Improve your professional communication by learning how to write effective E-Mails at work. Writing good professional E-Mails will accelerate your career in Industry and strategy consulting. Improve your top-down communication skills and learn about the MECE principle, write informative subject lines for your e-mails and communicate well.
Chapters
00:00 How to write effective E-Mails
01:34 Writing informative subject lines
01:58 Top-down communication for E-Mails
02:45 Creating a strong structure (MECE principle)
04:58 Structuring Next Steps and To-Do's
05:42 Keep this in mind when writing E-Mails
06:52 Reducing your E-Mail load
#communication #emails #consulting
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“Good news in writing, bad news in person.” How insightful :)
2:00 subject line: more precise.
2 things: context and summarize what you want. (top-down communication)
2:50 the structure of e-mail.
a new opportunity: spain for a pilot.
3:35 the logical group: focus initiative, meeting schedule, next steps. which is from MECE principle.
4:15 use bullet point whenever possible and also sub-header as possible.
5:00 distributing to-do's:
5:30 bold the name.
5:50 2 additional tips: 1. Avoid e-mail ping-pong, especially for scheduling the meeting. 2. Push for action in emails, for example, mix emails with little deadline.
7:00 3 tips to avoid emails:
1. leverage messaging services: nothing to be forwarded to, then use this.
2. thoughts on email escalations: when you're angry to put cc and political games.
3. good news in writing vs. bad news in person: because you can give the potential to share around the good news.
1:30 Nice poster in your background Heinrich 😂
;) Thanks, glad you like it! Best, Heinrich
I learned "good news in writing, bad news in person" and i think this will definetely make life easier
Hi Heinrich, great video again 👍
In addition to your video and good comments from the floor I use the following guidelines
1) Be specific in the call to action in the subject line E.g. [Person A to review] Minutes of Meeting, project x, 22 March
2) Start the email with the action required and then in the next paragraph write Context in bold and write the context. E.g. Person A may I trouble you to prepare the financial report.
CONTEXT: The company is preparing the audit of…..
3) Always mention in the beginning of the email if someone has been included or removed from the email
4) stick to the same email trail. Makes it easier to understand the context if new people are included.
5) Avoid adding url and make hyperlink in words instead.
Spectacular how the email changed and looked so much more professional! Thanks Heirich!
Very helpful, an idea for a next video “how to organise your inbox (folders etc.)”? Been practising the suggested for almost a year now. Initially started applying this based on the MECE video. I see the trusted thinkpad is still the tool of choice ;)
Great idea! Would also love a video on how to organize the inbox, especially as Outlook is not the most intuitive software out there
Hi Shyam, thanks for this suggestion, this is definitely also an important one! Best, Heinrich
I have good experience with just two folders. Inbox and Done. Everything you have completly done goes to „done“. Everthing else goes to „Inbox“. So you can achive a completly clean inbox. If you need to find E-Mails i love outlook searchbar. For me this works well, still with many E-Mails and different customers.
@@martinliesong204 I miss outlook actually. Gmail labels is what drove me crazy. Lol. Ya. If can tell us most efficent way to manage gmail would be great too
would love this!
Happy to see you've posted! Always looking forward to your weekly insights - greatly appreciated Heinrich
Yes, always great to finish a new weekly video :) Thanks for watching!! Best, Heinrich
As always, very good tips. Not writing in affect is very useful.
Another tip is thinking keywords when writing emails. So you may add things that are unique to this very message.
In this case. If the kickoff was in Munich, you may add that in the subject already. Or any other words that makes it easy to find later.
Another powerful thing are links (CTRL+k). Put in links that help the reader find stuff you’re referring to with one click. This can of course also make your mail end up in the junkmail so not recommended for first time you write someone.
On the same topic. Let’s say you’re writing an important document that you don’t have time to check thoroughly before sending. Create a special folder for that document and send the link to the folder instead as attachment. In this way, you may correct/update the document in spite of having sent it already (without anyone ever finding out that the first version contained a horrible error ;)
Keep up the good work 🙂
I was searching for a content just for this topic and couldn't find anything onpoint. Now I see Firm Learning has uploaded it! Thanks for your all valuable work : ) Best wishes
Happy to hear it is helpful, thank you Yuzaf! Best, Heinrich
Love this video! Emails are SO important yet so little training is provided
As always, your videos are full of precious tips.
Let me share a couple of tricks that I use to save recipient's time (they work only if the receiver too knows them):
1. I try to condense as much info as possible in the first two lines of the email so that the simple preview of the message is enough for the recipient to decide if s/he must open the full message.
2. The subject field is a precious extra line for messages and it can be used for very short responses (again, without the need to open the email unless necessary).
For example, if a colleague asks me a confirmation on something via email, I tipically reply prepending the answer with a closed bracket, right in the subject like:
Subject: Ok for me] - Proposal for kick-off
Of course, it is not advisable to use them in formal communications, especially with clients; but with colleagues they might be worth a try.
Great points, thanks for your detailed advice Fulvio! Trust this will be helpful to many reading this comment. Best, Heinrich
Be careful with 2) Most people don't read the "RE: [...]" subject lines (of their own original emails) again and will simply overlook your message.
@@Knowledge_Nuggies you’re right! That’s why you should use it only with “selected people”
Great tips, Heinrich. Thank you!
Thank you Gavin - happy to hear you found it valuable! Best, Heinrich
good inputs, happy to see that I already follow quite a lot of them
Thank you for sharing your wisdom!☺ Great video!
Thanks for your kind comment Amy, appreciate it! Best, H
Great content, useful and applicable no matter where you are in your career
One small tip related to email/message writing is always check the receiver email is correct before hitting the send button
thank you, writing my first email to associate director right now
This was a much needed video. Thank you very much
Great piece of advice! Thank you!
Thanks Rui, appreciate it! Best, H
great video really
Great! Thank you!
Great video and helpful tips!
My tip would be:
Use delay delivery wisely if working with other time zones. You can avoid disturbing colleagues on the evening or weekend, if you don’t need their answer before they become available again.
Yes can definitely make sense. Avoiding emails on weekends is definitely also good for the team. Appreciate it thanks Aleksander! Best, Heinrich
"Use delay delivery wisely if working with other time zones. You can avoid disturbing colleagues on the evening or weekend, if you don’t need their answer before they become available again."
Here's a great tip, if you want to not be disturbed during off time set your device/client to do not disturb. Nobody should be responsible for the fact that you're in a different time zone, cuh.
Not sure I agree with that, if you have the information for the next person ready, I see no reason to sit on it. They can decide when they respond to it or what their work hours are.
Good tips!
Wow! What a beautiful and elegant house you are in!
Great!
Would like to see a video about how to solve given tasks. Tips about quality, delivery time, levels of details etc.
Useful content!
I’ve written many thousand so any tips gratefully received. One day I’d like to be in a workplace where email isn’t a thing.
Indeed also feeling quite overwhelmed with emails :) Best! Heinrich
Amazing as always, as always!
Thanks for watching - and for being a regular viewer! :) Best, Heinrich
@@FirmLearning Love you :) seeya next sunday for your next release :)
Valuable information! While at career start, one starts to understand these principles gradually ( atleast an year i think) - but having your resources can really boost the learning curve!
Agree, though some people seem to just not get it, even after years and years on the job :) Best, H
Great tips on writing emails!
Thank you! Best, H
Excellent review. Thank you.
Thanks Mike, great to hear it is helpful! Best, H
Thank you 😊
U r really smart and provide great values to us
Hi heinrich, good tips, great panting!
Thanks Muhammad! ;) Appreciate you watching! Best, Heinrich
Love your videos. Would it be an idea to sell notebooks with firm learning tips and agenda functionality? That would be amazing
Good topic
Thanks Yzera! Best, H
Excellent videos
Thank you Peter, great to hear you enjoy them!
Excellent video, would you recommend any additional resources . Thx
inverted pyramid of communication! journalism 101 :-)
:) Thanks for watching Iseron! Best, H
Fully agree, Heinrich! Don‘t write stories in an email AND #1 as you mentioned; write a meaningful subject!!! I hate searching for emails and find thousand of emails with the subject „Memo“ with no reference to which topic it is related. A question to you. How would you reply to an email you have asked the team e.g. for advice and one member replies only to you but you want that the whole team should read the advice? Usually, this may result in another email. Any idea to avoid this?
Thank you Heinrich. Couldn't help but notice the picture on top of the chest of drawers, was this intentional?
Just felt motivated enough to click the link the your slide writing course, but it’s not ready. Bummed.
working on it :) thanks for being interested Justin! Best, Heinrich
Einer meiner 3 Projekt Credos, den ich immer wieder in meinen Projekten neben dem Bildschirm kleben hatte:
"Never talk when you can nod and never nod when you can nod and never write anything in an e-mail," Eliot Spitzer
Great suggestions. But it's very unlikely that anyone will ever read messages with more than 2 short sentences. People don't value the time you put in writing a great email, simply won't happen.
In this case of a meeting summary, I'd strongly suggest to put the content as a PDF file. It's a little psychological trick. Your readers need to open the file in another window. So once they cross the boundary, you can be sure they're listening to you.
Couldn't finish it yet but yes this is a useful subject!!!! (Structure is key )
Thanks for watching Sitraka! Appreciate your comment! Best, Heinrich
Good content. Not sure the picture in the background is appropriate though.
Great info and an impressive potrait of sorts in the back. Any idea where I can get one for myself ? 🤔
i too was intrigued by the portrait in the second last section (from about the 7 minute mark). It probably isn't what it looks like, but does highlight the need to be careful of what is in the background (or what appears to be in the background) when creating videos! 😊 Ignoring this, I enjoyed the video which gives good advice.
Thank you, I'll try to apply it from now on ! (be careful with the painting behind you, youtube algo may strike you)
Thanks Yanis, did not even notice it was in the background when filming :) Best, Heinrich
The photo in the background 😂
Looking fot the comment section for this
;) Thanks for watching Matthew! Best, Heinrich
Hi, thank you for sharing of the knowledge!
Will you update the content of your Udemy course?
Thank YOU for watching Sergey! Currently working on an update of my Communications and Slide Writing course, not yet decided whether I will also host it on Udemy. Best! Heinrich
Don’t stop posting videos!
New videos are in the pipeline :)
@@FirmLearning Great!!! Thx 🙂
What do you think about cal Newports thoughts/book about business email? He thinks in the sake of focus one company should abandon email altogether
This sounds like an overly simplistic generalization. Each communication medium has different degrees of "richness" and strengths/weaknesses and is thus suitable for different situations/purposes. If you need to convey medium-long, structured information (and corresponding files) to one or multiple people and which probably won't raise many questions or require real-time feedback, email is the perfect medium. Coincidentally, this is the typical communication situation in most white collar job settings. Ideally, you then complement email with other media that fit other situations, e.g, f2f (or video chat) if real-time feedback and relationship mgt. are important, chat messages for quick infos etc.
Agree with "Jordan" on this one ;) Thanks for watching! Best, H
The picture indeed. LOL
What's that on your picture in the background?:D
art, lol
Painting in the background
Thanks for watching! :) Best, H
@@FirmLearning heyy, my university professor suggested the class to subscribe to your channel. Cheers
@@MegMentors pretty cool thanks for sharing! May I ask which university / class?
@@FirmLearning
College: SRCC Delhi, Sri Ram College of Commerce, the best ever college for Commerce in whole India.
Course: Global Business Operations
Is that a piano behind the door? Do you also play?😀
Used to play when I was young :) Best! H
First
First indeed - thanks for watching! Best, Heinrich
Let me modify this with some invaluable advice for senior IT management:
1) Subject line: Always use three dots as a subject. You have an MBA (or you almost got one) - what you have to tell the code monkeys is always important, regardless of a specific subject. And they should know that.
2) Opening: Do not lower yourself to greet or even address the recipients. The company does not pay a visionary leader like you to write "Hi" several times per day! Just start your first sentence right away, ideally with an "I". This emphasizes how little time you have got and makes the nerds even more grateful that you spend some of it for writing them about your decisions.
3) Body: You are writing on your iPhone? Good! Otherwise, switch to your iPhone or at least think how you would write on your iPhone. Your mail should not take more than 200 characters, which is more than enough to describe the big picture. Avoid any technical terms that you are familiar with and invent new ones instead. Only if you know certain terminology but not its meaning, you can risk using it, because you will likely use it wrong. This gives your message a subtle layer of abstraction which distinguishes leadership from operations. Also, do not shy away from spelling errors. You are a results-driven person who is not bothered by minor imperfections in the process.
4) Closing: "Kind regards", "best regards", "have a nice day", "thank you" - all written depeding on the recipients? Of course not! Remember the principle of top-down communication? You at the top communicate down. Therefore, you are using only one expression: "Thanks! Your Name". It adds a flavor of generic instruction to your email, regardless of the contents, and the recipients will wonder what this instruction might be, for the fulfillment of which you have thanked them. Unnecessary to say that you are not typing it out but have stored this phrase as your signature.
Awful advice
This is not a leader's approach, it's a bossy approach.
It is obviously a joke...
Es gibt wirklich nichts schlimmeres als Mails mit unendlichen Texten in denen sich die Fragen/Aufgaben quasi verstecken. Ich weiß auch gar nicht wo das Problem liegt. Wenn die Mail an etliche Leute geht einfach mit einem fett gedruckten Namen oder einem vorangestellten @ den Leuten klar machen was man von wem erwartet und wer die Mail rein informativ bekommt.
KISS - "Keep It Short, Stupid!"
Agree that this is a principle that often makes sense - thanks for watching James! Best, Heinrich
Mate, can you be a bit more careful about the picture in your background
Background of your video
Is that a topless woman photo in the background? Are we not going to talk about that?
Meme review
Ermm gotta be honest. The naked woman in the back was a bit distracting. Lol
Am I seeing that right?
You are incredibly handsome and I find it distracting. I am unable to focus on the content, and for this reason, I am afraid I must unsubscribe. Best to you, Heinrich.
Another useful thing to call out people in the email is to simply @mention their name (put an @ in front of their name).
Not only does a @Heinrich stand out it is also seeing increasing support in various apps and email clients. You may know this already from messaging apps (WhatsApp, Messenger, ...), where this will send that person a notification that this message mentions them, and it will also highlight the mention. The same highlighting works for emails with an increasing number of email clients.
Yawn...
Ah perfect! Another McKinsey useless tip. How many millions will it cost to the collectivity?
Not sure I get your point. Still, appreciate you watching! Best, Heinrich
@@FirmLearning Don't worry if you don't understand. It's a specific french point of view where French governement is actively spending hundreds of thousands € to buy absurdly expensive reports from McKinsey (several thousands € per page). These reports tends not only to be useless in terms of added value but also tends to promote the destruction of anything tied to public infrastructure or services. So yeah. We hate McKinsey here in France. Moreover, they are tax frauding.
Hello,
Thanks quite interesting.
What do you think about @people in the email, you put the name of the person in bold but what do you think about @ ?
Thanks
You light up the room, want to be youtube friends?
Always happy to - thanks for watching! :)