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Interview with Shirley

I was recently asked to participate in an e-mail interview so that the Q&A could appear online, so I thought I would reproduce the Q&A here for my readers to share too. The interview was originally requested by Colin Ong, Managing Director of MR=MC.

If you have any further questions to add to this list, please send me an e-mail to news@shirleytaylor.com, with 'Q&A' in the subject line. I'll add the answers to this page as soon as possible.

1) You are a well-travelled person - any favourite city?
I loved living in Toronto, a beautiful place with fabulous people. I also enjoyed living in Bahrain, ditto. I now live in Singapore and I love it here too. How to choose a favourite city? I'm very lucky to have travelled far and wide and I like to appreciate different places for their uniqueness. However, one of my favourite places to relax and unwind is an island off the east coast of Malaysia called Rawa - www.rawasfr.com. It's paradise!

2) What are your strengths?
I hope people would describe me as friendly. I like to treat people as equals and not be snooty or superior in any way. This helps me in my workshops because I can get on well with most people and relate to them well. I like to think I have a good sense of humour, and I am told that this is a very successful feature of my workshops and my conference speeches. I also aim to make all my speeches and workshops as participative and interactive as possible, and so far I feel I've been quite successful at doing this. I was once told during my teacher training course "Never tell the audience anything that they could tell you", and I've always remembered that advice. There's nothing more boring than someone waffling on and on, loving the sound of their own voice, doing a lot of telling, when it would be so much more fun if the audience was included.

3) What motivates you to write so many books?
I guess one led to another and another. The reason I decided to write in the first place is because when I was teaching in Singapore in the eighties, there weren't any good books on business communication to use as a class textbook - hence my first book Communication for Business, which I'm happy to say is now in its 4th edition and is used by students at schools and colleges all over the world. I am presently in the process of revising this book so if anyone has any comments, please write to me at news@shirleytaylor.com. Model Business Letters, E-mails & Other Business Documents is now in its 6th edition - this was just published in November 2003 and it's already sold over 10,000 copies. This book is an evergreen - written originally by Leonard Gartside in 1971, I was asked to revise it after he died.

4) Has email created less importance in the structure of business correspondence?
This is me on my soapbox .... One of the main advantages of e-mail is speed, but the pressure of coping with an ever-increasing mailbox is adding to the pressures people already face. This is resulting in messages being sent without much thought or planning, with important details missing, with spelling and punctuation errors, and with abbreviations that some people don't like and others simply don't understand. Some messages look like they are written in code! Some people are even neglecting the common courtesies of a greeting and sign-off just for the sake of speed! Also, emotions are hard to convey in e-mails, and some people type out exactly what they would say without thinking of the tone of voice that would be used to signal their emotions. With e-mail all we have are words. Without the right tone, misunderstandings could easily happen, or you could offend and perhaps lose an important business contact - or even friend! Good writers learn to choose their words very carefully and get the tone just right.

As more people use e-mail, sloppy work is becoming a major annoyance. People are receiving poorly formatted messages in one continuous paragraph, poorly structured messages that are not specific in the response required, messages written all in capitals (equivalent to SHOUTING) or all in lower case, and of course messages with poor grammar, spelling and punctuation. When I was doing some research recently, a friend of mine said: When I receive a message that has lots of mistakes - spelling errors, punctuation, grammar - I think the reader has no respect for me because he/she couldn't take just one minute to check it through before hitting 'send'. I completely agree! The Internet has made it possible for us to communicate with people from all over the world. The only way those people can form an opinion of us is by looking at the way we write! Your credibility could be ruined with one swift click of the 'send' button!

Today's way of conducting business is very informal so that's what we should aim for in our business writing too - natural, relaxed, friendly, conversational. The only place for standard boring overused clichés like Please find attached herewith, I am writing to inform you, Please be advised, I should be grateful if you would kindly, is the waste bin! Busy businessmen and women haven't got time to plough through loads of old-fashioned, long-winded jargon. Nor should they be subjected to abbreviated, coded, sloppy messages that are full of errors! We should take just as much care in composing e-mail messages as we should with formal letters, memos or faxes. We should use short words and simple expressions, short sentences and short paragraphs that are clear and concise but still courteous. We should take pride in composing effective messages that are structured logically. Most of all we should identify with our readers, appreciate their feelings, and use words they will understand, written in an appropriate tone.

If you want to improve your electronic rapport with customers and colleagues, if you want to enhance your credibility and your reputation as well as your productivity, remember - it's not a computer you are talking to - it's a real live human being!

5) Will you write a book about the proper way of sms? :)
Er .... no! :-/

6) What design elements did you put into the building of your website?
When I set up my business in Singapore in 2002, the first thing I did was enlist the help of Hanindah Bte Zainomum (thanks to Gordon for passing on the contact). I simply told Hanin what I wanted, gave her lots of information, and she came up with the logo, the icons, the colours and the general design.

Hanin makes sure my website is easy to navigate, interesting and colourful, and I try to make sure it's up-to-date and always contains new articles and information, so there is always something for people to keep going back for. I liaise with Hanin frequently and give her updates - every month I add new articles to Learning Links, and just recently I've added a new page on Frequently Asked Questions. Each month after I send out my e-newsletter, Shirley Says, Hanin adds the new issue to my website without even being asked. I also add new photos to the Photo Gallery after each workshop, and this is proving to be the most clickable link when I send out my monthly e-newsletters - it seems people love looking at pictures!!! Another popular feature is the Guest Book, and I'm always surprised and pleased to see so many people leaving me messages - thanks to everyone who has taken the time to do that.

7) Are you looking for new alliances?
I'm very happy at the moment to be working with LCI Executive Seminars who organise my public workshops in Singapore. If anyone wants to talk to me about the possibility of us working together, I'd love to hear from you.

Remember, if you have any further questions to add to this list, please send me an e-mail to news@shirleytaylor.com and put 'Q&A' in the subject line.I'll add the answers to this page as soon as possible.

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