Title: Essential Managers-Dealing With E-Mail Title: Essential Managers-Dealing With E-Mail Size : 408 x 177 mm (175# SG Elliptical) P021CV P485CV M Y C K Τ 2 Size: 408 x 177 mm (175# SG Elliptical) Folio: (US Jacket) Folio: (US Jacket) E S S E N T I A L M A N A G E R S E E S S E N T I A L M A N A G E R S ESSENTIAL MANAGERS S ESSENTIAL MANAGERS S E N TITLES IN THE SERIES DEALING T DEALING Learn everything you need to know about Achieving Excellence •Balancing Work & Life I how to improve your use of e-mail. A Coaching Successfully •Communicate Clearly L Dealing with E-Mailexplains the basics of Dealing with People •Dealing with Difficult People WITH E-m AIL how e-mail works before moving on to Dealing with E-Mail •Do It Now! WITH E-m AIL Effective Public Relations •How to Delegate M consider how to manage incoming e-mails, Influencing People •Interviewing Skills Practical techniques show you how to make e-mail an A how to store e-mails efficiently, and how to N Learning to Lead •Making Decisions effective tool that enhances your business performance find filed e-mails quickly and easily. Practical A • Making Presentations •Manage Your Time C G techniques demonstrate how to write Managing Budgets •Managing Change lear text and illustrations cover every aspect E A T T A C H M E N T S R effective e-mails, and power tips help you of planning and organizing your e-mails Managing Globally •Managing Meetings S • develop a successful e-mail policy. Managing Teams •Managing Your Boss Simple checklists enable you to reap the D S E N D E R • S T Y L E Managing Your Career •Marketing Effectively E Maximizing Performance •Motivating People full benefits of e•-mail technology AL V I R U S E S F I L I N G DAVID BRAKEis a journalist and Internet I Negotiating Skills•Performance Reviews A N consultant with over 15 years of experience in ccessible flow charts and diagrams explore different Project Management •Putting Customers First options for taking action and provide useful examples G S H O R T C U T S C O P I E S media technology. He has written for a wide Reducing Stress •Selling Successfully W range of print and electronic publications, Strategic Thinking •Thinking Creatively IT T E M P L AT E S • S E C U R I T Y includingPersonal Computer World,Which Understanding Accounts •Writing Skills H Printed in Computer?, andMac User. He has also worked Writing Your Resumé ISBN 0-7894-9539-2 Hong Kong E S I G N A T U R E S 90000 - as a university lecturer. M A I N F O R M AT I O N I Seeourcomplete product lineat L ALSO AVAILABLE: www.dk.com 9 780789 495396 Essential Manager’s Manual Managing for Excellence Successful Manager’s Handbook Jacket imagesFront:Getty Images/ Andreas Pollok (cr); Getty Images/ PhotoDisc (bcr); Apple Mac Computers (clb). ISBN: 0-7894-9539-2 DAVID BRAKE $7.00 $8.95 USA Canada WNOhi RleE eSvPerOyN eSffIoBrtI LhIaTs Ybe leianb tialikteyn w toil lc baerr ayc ocuetp tiendst rfuocr teiorrno rtos. customers satisfaction P021CV P485CV M Y C K Τ CUSTOMERS ARE THEREFORE URGED TO CHECK THOROUGHLY BEFORE AUTHORISING PRINT RUNS. E S S E N T I A L M A N A G E R S D EALING E- WITH MAIL D B AVID RAKE C ONTENTS LONDON, NEW YORK, MUNICH, MELBOURNE,ANDDELHI 4 INTRODUCTION Project EditorNicky Munro US EditorMargaret Parrish DTP DesignerRajen Shah T C AKING ONTROL Production ControllerKevin Ward Managing EditorAdèle Hayward E- A IN THE MAIL GE Managing Art EditorKaren Self Category PublisherStephanie Jackson DKDELHI 6 SWITCHINGOVER TOE-MAIL Project EditorRanjana Sengupta EditorRimli Borooah 8 UNDERSTANDING Project Art EditorKavita Dutta E-MAIL DTP DesignerBalwant Singh Managing EditorIra Pande Managing Art EditorAparna Sharma 12 USINGE-MAIL Editorial ConsultantAnita Roy EFFECTIVELY 14 CHANGINGTHE First American Edition 2003 WAYYOUWORK Published in the United States by DKPublishing, Inc. 375 Hudson Street 16 CHOOSINGBETWEEN New York, New York 10014 E-MAILANDOTHERMEDIA 03 04 05 06 07 08 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Copyright © 2003 Dorling Kindersley Limited All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. Published in Great Britain by Dorling Kindersley Limited. A Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN 0-7894-9539-2 Color reproduction by Colourscan, Singapore Printed and bound inHong Kong by Wing King Tong See our complete product line at www.dk.com 2 M E- 48 MAKINGFILES ANAGING MAIL READABLE E FFICIENTLY 50 ADDRESSING THEWORLD 18 ORGANIZING YOURMAILBOX 22 FINDING E-MAILS 24 AVOIDINGE-MAIL OVERLOAD 28 MANAGINGYOUR ADDRESSBOOK 52 MEETINGCUSTOMERS’ NEEDS 30 FINDINGE-MAIL ADDRESSES M AINTAINING 32 CUTTINGDOWN ONWORK E-MAIL POLICY 34 USINGDIFFERENTE-MAIL ADDRESSES 56 KEEPINGTRACKOFYOUR E-MAILRECIPIENTS 38 ARCHIVING E-MAIL 58 SECURING E-MAIL 40 PRACTICING SAFEE-MAIL 60 AVOIDINGLEGAL PITFALLS 64 COMMUNICATING FOLLOWING E-MAILPOLICIES NETIQUETTE 66 ASSESSINGYOUR E-MAILINGSKILLS 44 COMPOSING 70 INDEX WITHCARE 46 COMMUNICATING 72 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS CLEARLY 3 4 I NTRODUCTION The explosive growth in e-mail use has revolutionized business communication. E-mail provides a cheap, easy-to-use, almost instantaneous way to communicate with people all around the world. However, it also presents new organizational, technical, and legal challenges.Dealing with E-mailuses everyday language to clearly explain the various features of your e-mail software, shows you how to organize your e-mail efficiently and write precise e-mails, and clarifies the legal issues that arise from using e-mail. With 101 practical tips and a self-assessment questionnaire that allows you to evaluate your e-mailing skills, this book will help you discover the benefits that e-mail can bring to your organization, and enable you to employ this communication medium to the full. 5 TAKING CONTROL IN THE E-MAIL AGE T C AKING ONTROL E- A IN THE MAIL GE Today, electronic mail is one of the most important tools of business communication. To take full advantage of its potential, it is essential to learn the most effective ways of using it. S O E- WITCHING VER TO MAIL E-mail has become the dominant form 1 of business communication, and the Remember that, flow of e-mail traffic is increasing constantly. like other business Understand how this technology has changed activities,e-mail the face of written communication, and adjust needs management. your work practicesin response to this. REALIZING THE POTENTIAL E-mail arrived in the world of business in the mid-1990s. However, the first internet e-mail program was created over 20 years earlier, for use byscientists and the military. Businesses and consumers soon grasped the internet’s importance, especially for e-mailing, which has been its most popular function from the start. ▲CHOOSING E-MAIL There are now over half a billion e-mail mailboxes functioning globally. Across most of the industrialized world, the number of e-mails exceeds the numberof items sent by mail. 6 SWITCHING OVER TO E-MAIL CREATING A ▲DISSOLVING DISTANCES NEW CULTURE With the advent of the internet and e-mail, computer users have information The differences between e-mail and regular post from all over the world at their fingertips. are vast. E-mail is an increasingly popular medium of communication, which is changing business vocabulary, ways of working, and expectations. It is fast, cheap, and easy to send, 2 so you can write a quick line to someone around Encourage all the world without having to print out a letter, your business find an envelope and the correct postage, sign, contacts to work seal, and mail it. The speed and simplicity has with e-mail. encouraged a new informalityin communications, even in a business context. METCALFE’S LAW Robert Metcalfe, the inventor of Ethernet, a type of local area network, formulated a suisme polfe el-amwa tiol. eTxhpel alainw t hstea teexsp tlhoasti otnh ei nu ttihliety, Utility Utility = Users2 or usefulness, of e-mail rises sharply as the number of users increases. This accounts for the phenomenal growth of e-mail in the world in the last few years. Today in the Users professional world there is hardly any ▲UNDERSTANDING business that does not have an e-mail address. THE GROWTH OF E-MAIL This stage of “critical mass” has led to a chain As more people use e-mail, non-users have more reaction all over the world as increasing reason to sign up and there is a rise in demand. numbers of e-mail users sign up each day. This further increases the utility of e-mail. 7 TAKING CONTROL IN THE E-MAIL AGE U E- NDERSTANDING MAIL E-mail programs are packed with 3 several linked features to fulfill the Be aware that needs of interactive communication. there are some Acquaint yourself with these features and risks involved in understand how e-mails are transmitted to sending e-mail. make optimum use of this medium. TRANSMITTING E-MAILS 4 Use a modern If you send an e-mail to a colleague in the same e-mail program for office on the same e-mail system, the path is simple. compatibility. The e-mail is sent to a central computer—the mail server. Your colleague, who is connected to the same server, is notified and opens the message. E-mail sent via the internet is passed from your ▼SENDING AN E-MAIL server, via a chain of servers across the internet, VIA THE INTERNET to another server closer to your intended recipient. E-mail travels from the sender’s computer to In theory, an e-mail could be interceptedand read, the Internet Service Provider (ISP) and via internet mail servers to the recipient’s ISP. or even lost, at any point in this chain. Sender writes E-mail routed Mail server at an e-mail across internet recipient’s ISP servers via existing receives e-mail phone lines E-mail arrives Mail server at at recipient’s sender’s ISP computer forwards it 8