Get rid of email dysfunction

NEW YORK, US: An overcrowded inbox is an annoyance at best and a performance-hurting time suck at worst. If you suspect your employees are not making the best of this critical communication medium, do an email audit.

At review time, ask your employees to choose two examples of messages they think represent productive email use. Coach them on their selections.

Those who highlight their eloquent responses may need encouragement to initiate their own ideas. Those who forward large documents may need to hear that being 'comprehensive' is not always a good use of colleagues' time. This process will be revealing to you and your employees as you uncover what bad email habits say about individual performance.

The Management Tip was adapted from "To Improve Performance, Audit Your Employees' Emails" by Michael Schrage.

(The Management Tip of the Day offers quick, practical management tips and ideas from Harvard Business Review and HBR.org www.hbr.org. Any opinions expressed are not endorsed by Reuters.)