Student leaders: respond to your emails

Student leaders, it’s October and you have mid-term exams. You receive another email in your inbox that’s already filled with messages, yet you neglect to respond to it. As a club president, an executive member of your club, you’ve potentially neglected a message from a fellow student who’s excited to collaborate with your club, and to provide exciting opportunities and benefits to you and your members. Days turn into weeks, you still haven’t responded to that particular message, and you’ve possibly missed a valuable opportunity.

If you procrastinate or if you don’t just enjoy replying to emails, I hope that, upon reading this, you’ll realize that sometimes replying to emails isn’t such a bad idea after all.

Good email response etiquette may generate good reviews for your group or organization. In the age of Facebook, Twitter and the hundreds — if not thousands — of online discussion groups, blogs, video blogs, podcasts, satellite radios, and the like, we all know that information travels fast. Within a few seconds, millions of people could know that your club is unreliable about replying to emails.

I’m sure that you, a current or budding student leader who may also have entrepreneurial or managerial aspirations, do not desire such a reputation for your current or future organization.

If nothing else, how about responding to show that you are a courteous and well-mannered individual? After all, I don’t think that you’d prefer the person writing the email — one who may introduce you to influential people in your desired industry — to think that you lack business-writing or relationship-building etiquette.

If nothing else, respond to show that you’re a courteous and well-mannered individual.

One’s lack of email response etiquette may occur for a variety of plausible reasons. Though, in light of these reasons, I suggest using a simple pre-programmed response, such as: “Hi, thanks for your email. We are currently busy at this time,” or another response to that extent. You may also consider including a follow up system on your email account, so that your teammates know which emails received or did not receive a response.

Some may say, “Whatever Naomi. This is just a school club. I have enough going on already with school, work and my personal life.” To you, I’d say that you’re correct, and I understand exactly how you feel. However, the executive position you may hold or aspire to hold in your current club is an excellent way to develop your managerial, leadership and communication skills.

Our volunteer, executive roles in student or community organizations will most likely help us to further develop these essential skills for our current and future careers. I’m sure you’ll agree that these notions bear some truth and relevance in today’s ever-tight job market.

With these examples, hopefully I’ve convinced you how important it is to answer your emails. Your relationships and reputation may be at stake, so at least consider the benefits to be gained by responding to these messages within a reasonable time.