Warning: Reading email on your smartphone can cause miscommunication.
The size of the screen seems to impact the “voice” of an email. At least it may impact what we hear when we read it to ourselves.
Have you ever read an email on your smartphone and assumed a certain tone? Then, upon re-reading it on your laptop or desktop computer, you realize it has a completely different tone? Usually, it’s not quite as abrupt or curt as we had originally experienced.
I’m not sure if we simply miss key information when reading on our phones, or if the size of the screen squeezes the tone – whatever the reason, I have heard time and again of folks mis-communicating by responding to a tone they felt they had heard in an email.
If you are about to respond to the voice you thought you heard in an email, pause before you fire off a response, and “listen” to it again on a bigger screen. It may not shift at all – and then again, it may.
Size sometimes seems to matter. You owe it to your business relationships to be sure you have the “voice” of the email correct.
Hilary Blair is a leadership keynote speaker based out of Denver, CO, and is the co-founder of ARTiculate: Real & Clear. She is also a highly regarded, actor, improviser, facilitator, voice-over artist, and voice expert coach. Contact us today to learn more.
