Email like an Executive (6 Tips). Project a confident and credible personal brand in your everyday emails.

How to write better emails. Communicate with influence and make an impactful impression for your personal brand.

In the course of my early career, I was guilty of doing the opposite of the ideas suggested in this blog. But, after years of working closely with C-suite executives through my marketing, communications and personal brand roles, I started paying closer attention to the secrets of CEOs' emails. Learning from the people who have made it to the top jobs in their industries, in part, for their ability to communicate with influence. 

Here’s what I’ve discovered are 6 tricks to email like an executive:

1.Be concise. Take the burden off the reader.

Research shows the average worker receives 100-120 emails per day. It’s estimated that professionals spend 28% of their workday reading and responding to emails. This equates to 2.6 hours daily. 

Your every email is in some way a burden on the reader. Write each email with this in mind. Your email requires time or energy to process. Ease the burden of your email on the reader. The onus is on you. Write an email that’s as easy to understand as possible.

C-suite professionals are masters of clarity and conciseness. Concise writing is a finer art than writing fluff and pressing send. 

 As the famous maxim from Blaise Pascal captured:

 “I would have written a shorter letter if I’d had more time.”

Concise writing communicates confidence and calmness for your professional personal brand.

To get to your point and communicate more concisely: 

• Avoid over-qualifiers, e.g. say ‘“I recommend”, instead of “I strongly recommend”.

• Cut excessive words. Remove every word that adds no value.

• Avoid unnecessary apologies: Skip “I’m sorry to bother you” or “I hope you don’t mind”.

• Remove filler words, e.g. ‘just’.

2. Be direct, yet respectful.

Use an active, direct voice in your emails instead of a passive voice. Crystal clear conciseness may at first appear excessively blunt. Some executives opt to skip the salutations. I personally prefer to preserve a simple ‘Hi’ and ‘Thank you’. It works wonders for your email, while avoiding excess. It’s easy for the reader to process, and it helps avoid any misunderstanding about the sentiment behind your bluntness.

Use action-oriented verbs to communicate with confidence. Choose verbs that elevate the confidence of your communication. For example, instead of “I suggest”, say “I recommend”. Switch “seems” to “demonstrate” or “indicate”. 

3. Lead with the hook. Make your intention crystal clear.

Don’t bury the lead. Make the purpose of your email clear in your subject line and opening sentence. Write a carefully structured, subjective line, e.g. “Action Required:…” or “Request:…”. 

4. Strategically sequence your points.

Organise your ideas to show clarity of thought. If you present multiple ideas, use numbered points instead of simple dot points. This allows your reader to respond to specific points as required aligning to the numbered framework.

5. Structure for skimming. Do a visual edit of your email.

Remember, your email is not the centre of your reader’s day. Make it easy for the reader to digest at a glance. Do a visual edit of your email.

For example, use:

• Headlines

• Sub headlines

• Dot points

• Bold and italicise tactfully 

• Add relevant links

• Remove every excessive words

6. Communicate next steps and your call to action clearly.

What action do you require from your reader? Ensure your email removes any doubts about your call to action. Request a response, reiterating the purpose one final time, by a specified time. 

Copy this C-suite cheat code for communicating with influence in your emails. Make an impactful impression for your personal brand while making life easier for your reader.