Perhaps key to effective and appreciated business email is consideration. I asked a number of colleagues and clients what they would like other people to know about email. "Respectful" turned out to be main point--respectful of receiver's eyes and times. Here's list:

1. Please put a concise and informative subject line. You may correspond with this person on only one thing, but they receive many emails a day from many people and need to know how to sort through and prioritize. Example: Today's meeting

2. Seems obvious, but make sure your email and your company's email server have right date and time on email.

3. Correctness still counts. Why? It's very disconcerting to read all small letters with no punctuation and it slows reader down. Grammatical mistakes and typos make us pause as we read because we don't expect them. They cause an emotional jolt ("that's wrong") which is something you don't want. You want them to focus on content of your message.

4. Skip emoticons.

5. Be judicious in use of graphics. They're tempting to use, but, again, they interrupt work flow modality. Save them for friends and family where you can enjoy them to your heart's content.

6. Pay attention to your tone. Blunt and brusque is offputting, but so is flowery and tentative. Be concise, brief and to point while also mannerly. Most of all--be clear. Other people are as busy as you are.

7. When you list a link, do it like this: http://www.susandunn.cc Do not put punctuation or letters at either end. It should show up in your own email as a link.

“I just can’t seem to get along with this person!”

Every office has that one difficult person to work with, who affects productivity due to a terrible attitude, chronic tardiness, or simply drives everyone else up wall. Here is answer to common problems in conflict management. Dealing with negative behavior, whether at work or at home, can be solved with three steps:

1. Get to heart of matter. 2. Determine what problem-solving methods to avoid so you don’t perpetuate conflict. 3. Choose a different, surprising approach to solve problem and keep it solved.

Finally, here is your key to some peace and sanity in workplace, drawn from forty years of research and professional experience in consulting on prevention and management of nonproductive behavior.

How difficult behavior is reinforced:

People use same solution that never brings new results. The answer is to try something radically different. Employ a totally new approach and choose your response carefully.

Why we fail to change negative behavior: 1. We are caught in web of our own logic. 2. We don’t realize we are doing same things over and over. 3. We can’t think of anything better to try.

This three-question formula can lead you to a new strategy: 1. What is primary problem? Be specific. How exactly does it affect productivity? 2. What have you been doing about your problem so far? Identify logic of your favorite solution. 3. What do you need to do instead? You need to undo what your ineffective solution did. Attack with a brand new set of weapons.

Focus on facts. Figure out what heart of matter is: 1. List all issues affecting you. 2. Decide which issue or who in particular is bothering you most. 3. Encircle issue or person’s name on your list. 4. Focus on what you circled. List all things that bother you about this person. 5. Now pick problem to work on. If you could only fix one item on list, and had to live with all others, what would you choose? 6. Then with particular problem chosen, spell out specifically: Who is doing what that presents a problem, to whom, and how is this behavior a problem?