Small Email Habits That Make You Look Like You Have Done This Before
Greetings, sign-offs, timing and tone. None of it is difficult, and all of it is noticed within your first week.
These are the things nobody explains because everyone assumes they are obvious. They are not obvious, they vary by region, and getting them slightly wrong marks you as new in a way that is easy to avoid.
Greetings
"Hi [Name]," is correct almost everywhere and for almost everyone, including senior people. "Dear Sir/Madam" reads as either a formal letter or a mass mailing. "Good day sir" is warm and locally normal and lands as oddly deferential to a European or American colleague.
Use their first name. If a founder signs off as "Tom", he is Tom.
Sign-offs
"Best," / "Thanks," / "Cheers," (UK and Australia) are all fine. Pick one and stop thinking about it.
Avoid "Yours faithfully" and "Warm regards sir". And avoid "Kindly revert" — it is perfectly good English here and reads as archaic elsewhere. "Let me know" is the international equivalent.
Subject lines
Say what it is and what you need. "Q3 report — needs your sign-off by Thursday" beats "Report". People triage by subject line, and a vague one gets opened last.
Length
Shorter than feels polite. A three-line email is not rude in a distributed team; it is considerate. The ask goes in the first line, not after a paragraph of preamble.
Timing
Sending at 11pm your time is fine — do not apologise for it. But be aware it lands in their morning and may create a sense of urgency you did not intend. If it is not urgent, say so in the first line: "No rush on this."
Most email tools let you schedule. Use it for anything that would otherwise arrive at an odd hour.
Chasing
Once, and in the same thread. "Floating this up in case it got buried." Not a new email with "REMINDER" in the subject.
Copying people
Copying someone's manager to add pressure is read as escalation everywhere. Do it only when you actually mean to escalate, and never as a first move.
Titles
Nigerian professional culture uses titles generously — Sir, Ma, Engineer, Doctor, Chief. Most international teams use none of it. Dropping "sir" is not disrespect; keeping it makes colleagues uncomfortable because it implies a hierarchy they are trying not to have.
Things that get noticed silently
- Replying to all when three people did not need it
- Sending "thanks" as a separate email to eight recipients
- Attachments with no explanation in the body
- Writing in a colour or font that is not the default
- Any use of full capitals for emphasis
The one habit worth more than the rest
Answer the question that was asked, in the first line, before adding context. It sounds small. It is the difference between someone who is easy to work with and someone who is not.
Everything above is the surface of Stage 3, where written communication is rebuilt properly over five days. See Stage 3.