The importance of tone...

Kimberly

At my current job, we do not much communicate through emails. Most of my work and communication is done face to face or over the radio with my engineer and other coworkers. But, every once in a great while I have an occasion where I need to speak with a superior through an email. About 8 months ago I needed to speak with one of my managers concerning returning to work after a break. I was impatient with the process and demonstrated this in the email by using language that sounded needy and attempted to take control of the situation. My message was quickly met with a response that drove me back to my place and informed me that I was certainly not in charge. My big mistake was using a negative tone and verbiage that immediately set my audience on the defensive. "Researchers have found businesspeople respond better to positive language and are more likely to act on a positively worded request than one that uses negative words." (Campanizzi, Jane, 2005) There are times in correspondence when emotion can cloud assertive communication, but it must never be forgotten the importance of tone.