E-mail in an Instant

5Mirror Key Words

Face-to-face conversations provide you with countless clues about the person with whom you are talking. For example, a colleague’s tone of voice can let you know that his or her remarks were tongue-in-cheek and not to be taken seriously, or, a customer’s facial expression can make it crystal clear that, though he or she seems calm on the outside, the customer is boiling mad underneath. Being the sensitive individual you are, once you catch wind of the other person’s mood or attitude, you respond in a way that creates rapport—right?

Finding these clues with e-mail messages is like looking for a needle in a haystack, and creating rapport, a champion challenge. One way to do it is to pay close attention to the specific, key words ...