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Emails from Venus or Mars

Wednesday March 8th, 2017, 5:16 pm

On International Women’s Day, it is timely to look at back at some research carried out by Mesmo Consultancy several years ago.

Not surprisingly, it showed that the differences between how men and women operate in business (and socially) carries over into how they communicate. For an in-depth review see Gender and Communication at Work edited by Mary Barrett and Marilyn Davidson and Managing in the Email Office by Monica Seeley and Gerard Hargreaves.

Meanwhile, here is a brief summary of the main difference.

CriterionMen and emailWomen and email
DeletingOftenHoarders keeping too much just in case
Subject lineLimitedMore accurate
SalutationOften noneNearly always included
ToneTerseFlowery
ContentShorter, crisper and to the pointRambling and often flowery
GossipOften – the main culprits email media disastersRarely
ImageryRarely included, but occasional includes text-speak emoticonsOften use stationary and ‘smiley’s’
Sign-offProfessional, bland but can be terseFlowery, often uses colour and fancy fonts

What as changed. Judging by the many emails I see, very little.

For more information and especially how to bridge the gap see first published in Brilliant Email.

 

For more time saving tips and hints why not buy a copy of one of our books or let us run a Smart Email Management workshop for you and your colleagues.
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