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Business Writing

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Effective Communication
Begins with a First
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[For more, visit the Communication Insight Center.] The speaker had
just been introduced. A slide behind him had his name and institution
on it. A program in each member of the audience’s hands had the same
information. And still, how did he begin? “Good Morning, my name is
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Gary Anderson and I’m a managing director […] by JD Schramm

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This document is authorized for educator review use only by shankar gopal, PES University until Nov 2024. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu
or 617.783.7860
 HBR / Digital Article / Effective Communication Begins with a First Impression

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Effective Communication
Begins with a First
Impression

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[For more, visit the Communication Insight Center.] The speaker had just
been introduced. A slide behind him had his name and institution on
it. A program in each member of the audience’s hands had the same

yo
information. And still, how did he begin? “Good Morning, my name is
Gary Anderson and I’m a managing director […] by JD Schramm
Published on HBR.org / August 17, 2010 / Reprint H0063S

[For more, visit the Communication Insight Center.]

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The speaker had just been introduced. A slide behind
him had his name and institution on it. A program in
each member of the audience’s hands had the same
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information. And still, how did he begin?

“Good Morning, my name is Gary Anderson and I’m a

managing director at Acme and I’m here today to talk
about…” Yet again the chance to make a powerful first impression by a
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presenter was lost. The audience settled in for another mediocre

presentation, and they were not wrong. All too often business leaders
forget the classic adage “you never get a second chance to make a first
impression.” In both written and oral communication it’s just too easy
to begin with the mundane, the uninspired, and the ordinary.

As we’re designing presentations or crafting emails or letters, it’s

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acceptable, perhaps even easier, to start by writing the heart of our

content. How will we shape it? What flow makes sense? What matters

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most to my audience? What aspects must be included and what
elements are optional if time, or space, allows? But once the draft
of your communication is complete, then step back and consider the
total package you are delivering to your reader or audience and decide

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carefully how you wish to begin.

Each year we likely see hundreds of presentations at work or

professional conferences. The speaker who commands our attention
from their first breath is one we want to listen to. At TED 2009,

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Elizabeth Pisani, an AIDS researcher with unconventional methods of
field research, did just that. She looked out at the audience and began
“People do stupid things; that’s what spreads HIV.” She had us. She
then went on to discuss four distinct groups of people (drug users,
sex workers, gay men, and health policy nerds) and what each found
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to be rational. Her talk, from her very first breath, was brilliant, well-
designed, and powerful. It began well and just got better.

In this era of double-digit unemployment, many of us are either

job-hunting or helping friends and colleagues who are searching for
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employment. After crafting a cover letter, set it aside, do something else

as a distraction, and then return to it with fresh eyes. Imagine you are
the hiring manager and this has landed on your desk or in your in-box.
Does the letter capture your attention from the very first moment?
No

All too often the letters I see are all about the applicant. “I found your
ad on my favorite job website and I think I’d be great for…” Consider
who are you writing to and how you can make a first impression that
gets out of your world and into his or hers. “Your need for a motivated
self-starter (from the job description) matches my desire to move from
product sales to selling service.” The point is to think of the recipient’s
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desk, his priorities and needs and address those. Your name is on the
return address portion of the envelope, at the top of your resume, and

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or 617.783.7860
 HBR / Digital Article / Effective Communication Begins with a First Impression

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at the top of the cover letter, so resist beginning with “My name is Beth
Jones and I want…” Consider the reader.

While we may only see scores of business letters in a year, we see

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thousands of emails. There, the first impression is obvious: the subject
line. Pause from this post for just one moment and glance through
your inbox right now. Don’t open and answer any emails, but just see
how many actually capture your attention with the subject line. I’m
guessing fewer than 10%. Worse yet, many subject lines give us no clue

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what’s contained in the email. “Follow-up from yesterday” or “update
on project” do nothing to capture our attention or give us a sense of
what’s in the email. So many executives read and respond from their
BlackBerries or iPhones, we need to make every single character count.
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The key to writing a powerful subject line is to do it last, right before you
hit send, not before you’ve written the email. Yes, I know, that requires
returning to the top of the email to fill in the subject line after you’ve
finished writing the email. But only then do you really know what you’re
saying in the body of the email. It’s also a fantastic opportunity to
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double-check that you have the correct recipients listed on the email
(not too many, not too few).

We have hundreds of opportunities each week to make a first

impression. Whether it’s a formal presentation to hundreds of strangers,
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a cover letter to a firm we’d like to hire us, or an email to a group

of coworkers about next week’s company picnic, consider that first
impression and make it count.

JD Schramm, Director of the Mastery in Communication Initiative

at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, teaches a variety of
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communication courses to MBA students. He can be reached at

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 HBR / Digital Article / Effective Communication Begins with a First Impression

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schramm_ jd@gsb.stanford.edu and is more likely to respond if the subject
line captures his attention.

This article was originally published online on August 17, 2010.

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JD Schramm teaches communication at Stanford’s Graduate
School of Business, where he created and leads the Mastery in
Communication Initiative.

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Copyright © 2010 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. 4

This document is authorized for educator review use only by shankar gopal, PES University until Nov 2024. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu
or 617.783.7860