Professional Communications

Elie Kochman — Tue, 11 May 2010 11:45:46 +0000

I’ve been told, and like to believe, that my writing is of fairly high quality in general, even when unedited (as an example, most of the articles on this blog are completely unedited). I try, to the best of my abilities, to maintain a high standard of professionalism in my writing at all times, since I never know who might end up reading it. That’s not to say that there aren’t errors in my writing, but that they are generally of a grammatical nature, not with inappropriate content.

I’m not referring to use of certain crude words or phrases – while I try to keep such language out of my writing, I do understand that for some people, this is considered normal content. I don’t think such phrasing belongs in a professional communique, but that’s just my opinion.

However, there is never an excuse for including personal information in an email which is not relevant to the recipient. Yes, gossip does move around, and some people are more prone to involving themselves in such conversations. But to include that in an email, in a business environment, to someone to whom this information is completely irrelevant, is completely and totally inappropriate.

When I saw an email from a business owner in which there was not a single correctly formed sentence, I was shocked by the lack of professionalism in her writing. When I read the content, and found comments about a former employee, I was astounded that she was able to keep anyone working for her. Inclusions of phrases commonly heard, but rarely written (for example, I was like thinking) which are heard because people often start talking before they’ve thought out the conclusion of the sentence, indicated to me that I had no desire to continue written communications with her.

Are my rules fair? Was I too harsh on her for not spending an extra few minutes on that email to clean it up?

Perhaps I was harsh, but I do feel it was deserved. If someone wants me to spend a few minutes reading an email from them, the least they can do is remove the irrelevant content, ensure that the phrasing is professional, and that the email flows from beginning to end.

A professional email:

Gets to the point
Includes all relevant information
Does not contain any irrelevant information
Uses proper phrasing and sentence structure

The more of those points an email fails to meet, the less likely it is that communication will be continuing smoothly.

One last point.

With the availability of tools to check spelling, there is no longer any excuse for a spelling mistake. If there is a single bit of editing that you do on your writing, it should be to ensure that a spell check does not pick up a single mistake.

Business is Business – Take it Personally

Elie Kochman — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:45:47 +0000

To anyone who thinks that I am referring to something they said or did, be aware that the incident triggering this article did not, in fact, involve me in any way. A story was told to me in which some of the topics in this article were brought up, and I therefore decided to write this.

It’s been a crazy week, and not just for me, but for many of the people with whom I have contact with on a daily basis. One of the common themes of this week made me think of a saying: Business is business.

Courtesy of T-KONI on Flickr.com

I suppose what that saying is to be interpreted as is that when it comes to business, it’s not about the people involved. What matters is the context and the content – the participants, however, can be swapped around without any implications (okay, maybe not, but you get the point). We’re told not to take such things personally – it’s about business.

In reality, few people can actually deal with business this way. At some level, there is still personality involved – and there needs to be. A motivated and driven person will interact differently than someone complacent. If you compare two such people in similar situations (professional of course) you will see them act differently. The personality of the people involved is what makes and breaks deals.

What this also means is that what is said in a professional environment will ultimately be taken personally. Whether that impacts the context is not relevant – regardless, it has had an effect on the two (or more) people involved and their ability to interact.

For this reason, it is crucial that despite the saying that business is business, one needs to be cognizant of the potential ramifications of the things they say, and how they might be perceived by someone else. This is the reason that we are also told to act like professionals – always be polite (even, or especially, when we don’t want to), always stick to the subject at hand (even if the person did talk about you at the water cooler last week), always give the benefit of the doubt.

Advice for Small Business Owners » professionalism

Professional Communications

Business is Business – Take it Personally