Working with staff who aren't necessarily even in the same country let alone the same office is one of the most interesting parts of running a blog. It's a method of work that is unique to this generation of business and there is little written on the subject.
The bedrock of working with remote staff is email communication. While everyone knows how to use email, not everyone uses it well. To run a blog team via email requires some extra email skills:
Expressing what you require from someone clearly is critical if you want to avoid pointless extra emails. Emails to staff should express succinctly what you want, set deliverables or a call to action of what they need to do next, preferably in point form, and include dates or times for completion. There is no room in written communication for hinting, being vague about what you need, or being wishy-washy. Get to the point.
If you are using email to brief staff, you must provide all the information they will require to complete a task. Think through the job as if you were going to do it, and set parameters, provide background information, make sure they have the right resources, and set it all out in clear point form.
The great danger with email is that written communication is missing a lot of the context of speech. In other words, email can be misinterpreted. As a general rule, it's good to lean towards being overly friendly instead of formal. If you are delivering criticism in particular, you should deliver it in such a way as to make sure the person doesn't feel they need to be on the defensive, that rather it's simply feedback on how they can deliver better.
Don't be afraid to use smiley faces and exclamation marks. Make sure to praise work well done. Make sure to be clear and straight about delivering criticism and then move past it. And be sure to give staff the opportunity to send back any questions, reservations, or feedback they might have.
In general there are two types of emails a person receives. The first is the actionable email. These emails have a specific task or outcome expected. There is something the recipient needs to do based on the information in the email. Often the action is as simple as responding to the email to confirm something.
he other type of email is the FYI ("for your information") email. In this case an email is purely to relay some information you think might be useful or pertinent to the recipient. If you are sending an FYI email, it's not a bad idea to put "FYI:" in your subject line. Get into the habit of differentiating these emails so recipients know how they are meant to respond (or not) and quickly deal with them appropriately.
Rereading emails can reveal flaws or missing information. It's very good practice to reread all emails of any significance to make sure they really do say what you meant to say. Needless to say, always reread critical emails. Preferably get someone else to read them as well to make sure the information you want to convey is delivered appropriately. Once you send an email, you can never get it back, so be particularly wary of negatively toned or angry emails.
It's difficult to read emails that have no paragraph breaks, aren't written in proper sentences, use CAPS, use too many ellipses, or break any number of other standard writing rules. Be careful that you write as you like to read.
It takes practice to work well over email. Don't assume that you are doing it well as there are a surprising number of bad emailers around. Ask your staff for feedback on how you can improve and communicate better, and be sure to implement the feedback they give you!
Generally it's best to keep emails brief. That said, you don't want to stray into being curt. Try to avoid responding in one- or two-word emails, or even single-sentence emails unless it's just the last of a string of mail and there is little to be said except a quick acknowledgement.
If you are going to work remotely over email day in, day out, it's important to get confirmation on all actionable emails. There is nothing worse than asking a question, sending instruction or emailing any other type of actionable email and hearing nothing back. Moreover, taking a long time to reply is tantamount to not replying. Often it means slowing down someone else's work while they wait for a reply, thereby making your staff less efficient.
If you aren't used to clearing your inbox daily, now is the time to get into the habit! If you receive a lot of rubbish in your email, set rules to send them to a secondary, less important inbox that you check irregularly. Keeping a clean inbox is an excellent way to stay on top of your email. If you are very far behind, you can declare email bankruptcy, archive everything and start afresh. After all, if you haven't gotten around to reading and acting on old emails to date, you probably never will.
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Note: This article was sent to us by: Sharon Reed at 02152011
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