Some thoughts on email

by guest blogger – John Zimmerman

It had been four years since I last held down a full time press position—I was Public Relations Manager for the National Association of Federal Credit Unions from 1999 to 2005—and now faced, on my first day as the National Credit Union Administration’s (NCUA) contracted Public Affairs Specialist, an inbox that scared me. I had never seen so much email that ipso facto I not only needed to read and digest, but to respond.

I pick up things pretty quick, especially when a pay check is involved, and learned to manage, more or less, my inbox. My ability to hit the road running, go splat, get up and run a lot faster was premised on rules widely stated, but so often forgotten.

Who’s on your island – Whoever you include in your email must be viewed as a community. That is, you are prompting a discussion (potentially) among all community members. If you want a discussion, putting copying people aside, with one person, send the email to that person. The shape of the community should be closely linked to what it is you want to accomplish.

Unfortunately, it seems that the most important consideration—moving toward a goal—when hitting the send button is: “Hey look at this cool piece of information I found [that does not move the ball at all] or cover yourself.

Think Before you Send or Respond – At NCUA I had the clearance, though never specified, to form any community I desired, except one including the Chairman and Board Members. While I had this discretion before as NCUA’s Congressional Liaison (1992-97), email moved like molasses then and there is nothing quite like a national reporter on short deadline demanding to talk to the Chairman on a volatile subject matter.

I thought carefully who I wanted in my community. If the email included the chief of staff, head of examinations & insurance, the General Counsel and so on, best to make the email relevant to each member and to be specific on what I was seeking from them individually and collectively. From my position on the seating chart, especially as a contractor, sending a dumb email to senior staff was not a smart move.

Can you get to all your emails? Some do, but if you think before you send an email or Tweet for that matter, opposed to just reacting as dictated by social media and a continuous news cycle, it would seem to be quite a contradiction. Maybe not? What do you think? Are the email rules different for executives?  Leave your comments below.

To print this or any other post, click the first icon in Share the Knowledge below.

The bulk of John Zimmerman’s professional career has been with the National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU) or NCUA.  He is the author of the feature article on the change at the top of NAFCU that appears in the current edition of The Federal Credit Union. He has lived overseas, five years altogether, supporting his Foreign Service wife in assignments to Tunisia, Israel and Cyprus. John is a freelance writer and photographer and may be reached at info@JHZCommunications.com.