Planning is an unnatural process; it is much more fun to do something. The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression.
Sir John Harvey-Jones
This chapter covers how to be more effective by providing enough time for your email recipient. It focuses on how you can:
How often have you rushed to complete and email a report only to have an out-of-office message ping back at you? How often do you need an urgent reply from a colleague and have the same thing happen? Both often result in wasted time, missed deadlines and increased levels of stress.
Email shortens the delivery time but it does not and cannot shorten the thinking time. Rarely does it even shorten the time needed to perform a task such as prepare board papers, revise a sales proposal or rehearse a presentation. Email allows us to leave things to the last minute and expect miracles. You get ‘the monkey off your back’ and onto someone else’s – usually the recipient’s.
Truncated and last-minute delivery times generally only serve to drive up stress levels, wreck working relations and set unrealistic expectations. This is because we have compressed reply times and set impractical and unreasonable deadlines. Other downsides of not planning properly and expecting an immediate reply include:
The time you give the recipient is another aspect of your email DNA fingerprint. It creates a perception of you and the professionalism – or otherwise – of your business in the recipient’s mind. It may also suggest that the recipient was bottom of your priority list and not deserving of your full attention and planning.
The productivity gains to be made from planning ahead and leaving the recipient sufficient time to make a proper reply include:
The crux to providing time for the recipient is having a sensible baseline for what you all feel is an acceptable response time – an ‘email service level agreement’ just as you would have in many other parts of your business (helpdesk, customer service, etc.).
Half a day or within four hours is the recommended norm for expecting a reply to both internal and external emails.
Figure 5.1 shows the results of a survey conducted for a client. This is what senders say they expect:
All too often there is a disparity between the perceptions of the sender and recipient about what is expected. Compare this with the results in Figure 5.2 of what recipients in one organisation thought was expected of them.
Forty-four per cent felt that in reality a reply was expected within a couple of hours and nearly a third felt that to reply within a day is acceptable. When the results were presented to the management team in this organisation, they were visibly shocked at the disparity – they thought everyone understood that half a day was an acceptable response time.
Many managers in other organisations often comment that they are surprised by how quickly people respond to emails that they themselves felt were not that urgent. Equally there are those who do expect an instant reply. Journalists are often the worst in terms of expecting an instant reply. Sometimes it’s acceptable when in response to a news story. At other times it’s just because of bad planning and a deadline creeping up.
PAs often tell me that their manager expects an instant reply. Yet, when challenged about whether they have discussed what is a realistic reply time, few have even discussed this issue.
Like myself, Rob Bamforth, Principal Analyst, Quocirca (the UK research and analysis company) has observed that those with handheld mobile devices often expect a far quicker reply than those operating from a conventional laptop or PC. Part of this lies in, and is driven by, our ‘instant gratification’ society and the 7/24/365 day culture in which we live. But is it realistic and does it leave sufficient time for a considered reply?
To decide what an acceptable response time is for you, consider these three factors:
Before sending an email, ask yourself, how long will it take me to do this task? Now double it and that is probably a good yardstick of an acceptable response time for your business.
You can refine your baseline reply time, depending on your business, by using the following criteria and sanity checks:
Having a baseline for an acceptable response time often means planning ahead. For example, if you produce the monthly sales report or campaign analysis, then you must make sure that you email those providing the input at least half a day ahead. While that is not always possible, it’s fairer than always working to tight deadlines.
You might just be surprised at how well such suggestions are received. It makes working relationships much easier as everyone then knows and is working to the same standards.
The key is not to prioritize what is on the schedule, but to schedule your priorities.
Stephen Covey
One executive works very early in the morning (around 5.00 am). However, she feels that rarely are the emails she sends so urgent that the recipient needs to respond ahead of their own priorities. To stop the recipients (often her team members) from getting distracted, she delays sending the message.
Leaving time for the respondent allows you to create the right impression. It means that both you and the recipient are operating from a level playing field and you don’t impose either your poor planning or sense of urgency on other people. There are a number of other ways you can try to do this:
When sending holding replies, be clear and firm, saying something like ‘I will reply on Friday unless you tell me this is unacceptable’. Don’t uses phrases such as ‘Is this OK?’ It leaves the door open for the sender to say ‘No’ and put you under pressure. It also encourages another round of unnecessary email exchanges.
Emailing very late at night or early in the morning can inadvertently create the wrong impression. Some management consultancies tell me that they actively encourage their consultants to engage in this practice to justify their fees! While it might suggest that you are a very hard worker, it can also convey the impression that the sender was low down on your priority list. I often compose important emails late in the day because it is the first window of thinking time. However, I drop them in the ‘Draft’ box and send them the next morning.
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