I hate writing emails. Perhaps I am too open and you are feeling dramatic. Your feeling is absolutely true - everybody have accepted email as a necessary evil and an obligatory form of communication. there's too much of it -- more 205 billion (that's with a capital B) emails are sent per day - and it's too easy to lose track of communication, notes, attachments, and reminders. Emails involve writing, writing good involves practice and practice involves actual work. Yes, email has always been an art and it takes a lot of practice to master it. What is so easy then about grasping the art of email writing? It's the tons of resource and helpful tips that are there in this vast internet landscape. If you’re stressing out over that past due client request or the typo in the recent email to your boss, wipe those tears and be prepared to take some notes.
30 Comments
It was my sons exam time and hence cannot view entertaining programs on TV. So I started watching the Lok Sabha channel and slowly got hooked into it. At many time we had to watch the cabinet ministers and some times even the Prime Minister himself stand in front of the house and answer questions which are raised. Over time it started to bore me, so I turned the channel to Times Now with Arnab Goswami. What makes it great watching this program is that government ministers somehow have to wrangle the volatile and hostile Host - Arnab. Many of the questions would be very sharp, directly undermining the person or his/her credibility or trying to put words in their mouth. The spokesperson has to somehow find a way to outmaneuver the opponents and take control of the stage without loosing his cool even once. What goes on there is a clear example of a common problem which we may face in our workplace. Everyday people face such situations: a HR manager announcing a new policy, marketing professional in a sales pitch, CEO address customer complaints, manager addressing quality issues in product meeting. The list goes on ... One day science fiction writer Aruther C. Clarke recounts in a dinner table: While lunching with his friends at a restaurant Ernest Hemingway bets the table $10 each that he can pen an entire story self explained in only 6 words. After the pot is assembled, Hemingway writes "For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn" on a napkin, passes around the table and collects his winnings. The general concept of trying to tell a story within the absolute minimum of words is generally known as flash fiction. This is a literary form of fiction with high brevity and generally now accepted within 1000 words. You also have micro fiction which allows a limit of 100 words. You have the same for micro blogs such as twitter. Regardless of what you do or what you are, do you have influence? It's what you do with your influence that produces results.
Your influence can be positive or negative, hazardous or safe, harmful or useful. It could be a byproduct of your lifestyle or an internal reflection of your leading towards success. When you start to step into that “intentional” aspect of influence, you also begin to develop the need for The Art of Woo: Winning Others Over. [The art of Woo, A book by G. Richard Shell and Mario Moussa.] Woo is about the ability to persuade… to guide others towards adopting an idea, attitude or desired action. Former Chrysler chairman Lee Iaccoca once said, “You can have brilliant ideas; but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere.” The art of Woo bridges this gap. Our brains are powerful organic machines. They control all thought, movement, and sensation while calculating and reacting with blistering speed. They store an immense amount of data as images, text, and concepts and used to store numbers too (before mobile phone era). Our brains also regulate thousands of complex functions, usually without bothering the conscious us with the exact details, such as with circadian rhythm, hormone balance, breathing, unconscious activity, and blood flow. This means the brain is constantly working, even when we sleep. This also makes our brain the most energy greedy organ in our bodies, weighing only 2% of our total body weight but consuming more than 20% of our caloric intake. Then half of that energy goes toward the bioelectrical messages our brains send spiraling through the neurons and throughout the body. We know that how we eat can affect our bodies physically, but what we put in our mouths also affects our mood, the brain’s energy, our memory, and even our ability to handle stress, complex problems, or simple daily tasks. |
AuthorVasudevan is a Leadership Mentor and an Executive coach. I run an online website geared towards helping creative entrepreneurs and future managers to build their dreams. Archives
June 2023
Categories
All
|