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Managing Your Executives Email
updated 2 years, 10 months ago
3 Members
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5
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Good Morning
For those of you that are managing your executive’s email in box:
– what methods are you currently using to sort and prioritize the emails?
– do you respond directly to emails for your executive? If so what is the protocol you practice for which emails you respond to and which emails they respond to themselves?
Thanks for your feedback!
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Hey Donna!
My executive and I just started working through this ourselves a few months ago. First we cleaned up what was in there (he had well over 15,000+ emails dating back all the way to 2014 sitting in his inbox.
From there we developed parameters regarding emails that could quickly be removed or filed. For example, he get’s cc’d on Docusign emails and daily metric reports that can simply be deleted. Those 50+ newsletter type emails he gets every day go right into a folder for him to read through if and when he has time.
For the rest, we use color coding categories to determine what’s urgent, and what can wait. When he logs into his email, he can sort by these categories and handle the important ones first.
As email chains develop, I do not delete the old ones, but they get removed from the inbox and put in a folder as soon as I see he has read them, and I know there is a more recent response, so that the inbox does not get bogged down. It’s also important to note that depending on your outlook, if you “delete” an email…it will go into your trash instead of his. So I actually drag emails to his trash instead of just clicking delete so that they stay within his mailbox in case he needs them.
I do not personally respond on his behalf, but if there is anything I can take care of for him, I just do it and take it off his plate. For example, if an email mentions needing to set up meetings, I will simply take care of that instead of waiting for him to ask me to do it.
Honestly it’s a lot of trial and error and seeing what works for you guys. And since my executive and myself are still learning, if you learn any other tips or tricks, I’d love to hear about it!
Thanks ~ Jess
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Thanks Jessica – my exec and I are just getting started on implementing the practice so this is very helpful. I’ll let you know how it goes and if we implement any unique processes that are different from your current strategies.
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Hi Donna!
I have been managing Brad’s inbox for several years. The two things that work best for me/us are:
-We flag any email that we believe needs a response. He does like to read through his inbox, so he’ll flag stuff that he reads, but doesn’t want to respond to himself. Then I go through the flags and attempt responses/actions. If the response/action is simple/obvious, I just go ahead and do it.
-If the response is NOT obvious, I take my best crack at it, and leave the response in Drafts. Then I let Brad know that it’s there, so that he can send it out himself. It’s a lot faster for him to just review what I said and hit send, then to write his own email. Sometimes, I’m WAY off, so he’ll just send me a message to tell me what I should have said, and then I can send it from there.
I hope that helps!
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HI Ann – Thanks for sharing. I like this approach.
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