Master Communication
Master Communication
- from the article “Top 10 Elon Musk Productivity Secrets for Insane Success”
When Musk is not building rockets or revolutionizing the automobile industry, there’s one place you can always find him: on email. He joked at a conference: “I do a lot of email — very good at email. That’s my core competency”.
He is extremely clear, concise, and direct on his emails. As an example, read the email sent to his entire staff about the use of acronyms aptly called “Acronyms Seriously Suck”.
He frequently emails his entire company with updates, how to communicate, company visions and mission, and being more productive at work.
“People work better when they know what the goal is and why. It is important that people look forward to coming to work in the morning and enjoy working.”
He is also a master at public speaking, converting complex concepts into easy to understand language using an authentic voice.
Musk often uses the present tense when talking about visionary topics, a language trick that excites the listener into feeling the future is now.
Application in daily life
According to a study of Carleton University, a third of the workweek of the “typical’’ knowledge worker is spent on email. That’s why mastering communication over email is an art form.
You want to be succinct but also get your message across. In an email, every word counts. Here are some tips on how to master communication over email:
- Keep it short: don’t write ten sentences when two suffice. To practice, take an email you’ve already written in a normal fashion and edit it down to half the words
- Avoid squishy words: avoid writing “I feel”, “I’m not sure”, “perhaps”, using the passive voice, or any adverbs that waste time for both you and your recipient and create confusion and misunderstandings
- Know what you want: think about the intended outcome of the email and outline it first in plain-spoken language. With practice, this outline IS your email
- Bold the important: if you need a reply from a particular person on a thread with multiple people, put their name in bold with action items and timeline
- Forwarding code of conduct: never forward along a massive email chain without a few bullet points as a quick summary at the top explaining why you’re sending it and action items you need from the other person