Are your emails effective?

One of the first lessons I started learning at my first job where I also had my own email address was how to communicate in written. 
I was not sure about the way I was expressing things, if I was polite enough, if my message was clear and complete. Therefore I have sent my first important emails only after they have been checked by my manager.  Due to the fact that I was responsible for the internal communication procedures of the company, I have got deeper and deeper into the subject communication at the work place.

Did you ever write an email asking for something and receiving something else? Or did you ever write an email informing about something and then receiving a whole bunch of questions on that subject? Did you have to come back with a second email with information you didn't put in your initial email? Were your emails sometimes misunderstood or ignored?

If yes, you should know that most probably it was your fault even if what we tend to do in this kind of situations is to blame the receiver of our message. 

“How could he not understand that?”, “Why do they ask this basic things?”, “Why don’t they answer to my email in time? ”, “Why did she replied so aggressive to my email? ”

All these questions should be replaced with questions like: 
“Was my mail clear enough?”, 
“Did I give all necessary details?”, 
“Did I write to the right person?”, 
“Did I mention the deadline for answering or acting in certain way?”, 
“Was my message professional?”

Every time we don’t get what we want through an email we should read it again and try to put ourselves in the shoes of the reader. If that is too hard, what works most of the time is to ask a colleague to read our message and give us feedback. I find this method useful especially when there is a risk of being involved in a conflict. Now and then we might receive emails on an aggressive tone or in which we are accused of different things. Our first natural instinct tells us to defend ourselves and reply on the same tone. However this will only bring us in a stressful situation and damage the relations with our colleagues. It might be a better idea to wait a while before answering.

What I have learned in time and what works for me is to write my first answer as it comes on the moment, save it as a draft and continue working on other things. After at least one hour I go back to the draft, I read it carefully and try to adjust it so that it’s not aggressive and that will express an objective point of view and a possible solution if that’s the case.

The premises of a team should be trust and confidence that everyone works towards reaching a common goal. Having this in mind it will be easier to presume the good intentions of our colleagues no matter the way we perceive their messages. It could very well happen that their intentions are not aggressive at all and that they just didn't pay attention at the way they expressed what they wanted.