“How to get important people to respond to your emails”

Wharton management professor Adam Grant offers six pieces of advice. In summary:

  1. Go for practical over flashy subject lines
  2. Explain why they are the right person to answer your question (and don’t email if they are not)
  3. Do your homework beforehand
  4. Highlight uncommon characteristics you share
  5. Make your request specific, and keep it short and sweet
  6. Be demure and grateful, not demanding and not obsequious

Read the full thing.

If you like this kind of thing, my professor colleagues often tell me that the greatest favor I ever did the profession was this post: “Dear students: How to email to your professor, employer, and professional peers“.

17 Responses

  1. my professor colleagues often tell me that the greatest favor I ever did the profession was this post: “Dear students: How to email to your professor, employer, and professional peers“.

    I wrote a somewhat similar piece called “How to get your Professors’ Attention — along with Coaching or Mentoring.” I consider it part of the tacit knowledge that should be codified and yet isn’t part of the formal curriculum. It’s especially important for students whose parents haven’t by and large imparted or modeled this kind of behavior.