Miscommunication is the mother of all screw-ups in the business world. A wrongly worded email, for example, can instantly infuriate or confuse your team.

How to communicate clearly via email:

Know your audience:

Sue Welman, an executive coach at the Johannesburg-based Nabantu partners, says there are basically three types of email recipients you need to cater for:

Analytical types.

They require detailed information about an issue before they can form an assessment. Your emails should give in-depth analysis and as much detail as possible. These readers respond well to a structured argument.

High-level thinkers.

On a good day, they’ll read the first two lines of your long and well-crafted email. They’ll quickly scan the paragraphs, and often will send you a mail back asking a lot of questions (that are actually addressed in your mail, if they would just read the damn thing in full). For these

co-workers, keep it concise and list all information in bullet point format, with the most important facts listed first.