I’ve been reading an enlightening book on learning how to be more persuasive and it discusses how coupling less obvious things such as rhetoric, and the medium you choose, with more obvious ones like timing into your argument, will make you a more persuasive person.

I decided I really liked Chapter 22:  How Media Can Help Your Message and so would write about that one.

But not the entire chapter, which would take too long to write about, just one particular tidbit about the length of e-mails.

Heinrichs, the author, writes that when you address a professional e-mail to someone below or at your level, its best to keep it perfunctory.  Whereas, when writing an e-mail to someone who is a superior, you should not fail to include your reasons for making certain statements.  It is unlikely that your superior will be justifying himself to you.

In the example Heinrichs gives, if God were sending any one of us an email, it could simply read, “CUT IT OUT.”

How this applies to my life:

On several occasions, being the bottom of the totem pole in the client-provider relationship, I have found myself writing more explanatory e-mails only to be responded with a short “Yes”, “No”, or lack of justification.  My (work) boss tends to respond to my texts or e-mails with no greeting and the most brief of responses.

But, what’s more interesting is that I never found this to be an issue. I never found it unusual that I was explaining my every reason for x,y,z, and getting squat back.

However, on the flip side, I’ve found it extremely satisfying when I e-mailed a client or the boss and told him simply, “I did this” or “I made these changes” with no explanation and he either agreed (or not).  But no explanation was required:  it showed trust.

With that said, this is clearly something that can be turned into a useful tool.  E-mail is not the same as interacting in person.  I’m pretty sure if I walked up to my boss and said, “boss, I’m doing ___ now”, he could and probably would ask why. But e-mail, especially professionally is different — wanna see where you stand with your partner/boss/assistant? Shorten your e-mails and see what happens.

Also: writing this post made me think of something similar that happens in romantic relationships.  I’ll either write that later tonight or sometime tomorrow.

Today, I thought this article on cohabitation to the extreme was interesting.  And no, I could not live like that.