If you are out for more than a day, set your out of office email address. You should also change your voicemail if you are at a critical point in the project or you know that people will want to reach you.
You will be able to tell people where your project team is so they can find the answers. Encourage them to also set up their voicemail and out-of-office email responses.
Your contact details should be included in your email signature. If your company already has a corporate signature format, you can use it. If your company does not have one, make something professional. Include your phone number. People will look at your last email first when looking for contact details. Outlook will not include your signature in a reply to an email unless you have specifically requested it to. It can be really frustrating to receive an email reply and then realize that you need to speak to the person. You will then have to look for their telephone number elsewhere because they don’t have a signature set up to return emails.
Your emails should be proofread and spell checked. Particularly if you are sending them via a BlackBerry or other mobile device. It is not helpful to anyone if the message isn’t understood by someone because you have missed ‘not’ or made a typo on the name of a document or person.
Make sure you have all the admin done: minutes of project team meetings, steering group meetings, shared project diaries, etc. It is important to keep it all current. If you need to, make sure to block time in your schedule for ‘admin days’.
Don’t promise to deliver what you can’t. This could be coffee for guests when the coffee machine is down, or project dates that you need to rely on unreliable people to deliver.
Follow through with what you say. Be clear about the deadline for feedback if you send a project document out for comment. Collect the feedback and update the document. This will allow others to plan around you.
Tell people as soon as you can if you are unable to do what you promised. This is the time of year to do capital reforecasting. If your project isn’t on track to deliver by December, adjust your forecasts immediately. It’s better than if your project sponsor discovers in October that you won’t be meeting your delivery or budget targets.
