Business English - Leadership

Strike the right tone to give instructions that your team will love to follow

A learner of English in an insurance company recently asked me for some help with emailing instructions to their office in China. At first sight, it seemed simply to be a case of telling the office how to use a new spreadsheet. But making the instructions crystal clear turned out to be more challenging than we had expected. After a few twists and turns, we came up with a form of language that could leave no room for uncertainty. At the same time, we needed to strike the right tone so that the Chinese office did not feel it was being talked down to like a junior partner. Here are some tips to help you give instructions in the best possible way.

Garry Britton

24.10.2022 · 2 Min Lesezeit

Know what you want

The first step is to be very clear about the instructions yourself! Any muddled thinking on your part will immediately translate itself into ambiguous language, leading to misinterpretation and confusion. You might want to draft your instructions in the briefest of bullet points, which can be a help to gaining clarity in your own mind. However, transmitting the same points unedited might wrongly assume a level of knowledge in the recipient’s mind. You’ll probably need to find the right balance between brevity and clarity. ‘What we need is this: number one …’

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