10 rules for managing by e-mail

1. Establishing goals and providing feedback is even more critical when you don't talk to employees on a regular basis.

2. Avoid ambiguity. The lack of personal contact in e-mail amplifies ambiguity. Read your e-mail before sending it. Is there anything that can possibly be misconstrued? If so, reword it.

3. Ensure that everyone knows what matters. Assemble and summarize message threads, and flag the top priorities for your team.

4. Keep your eye on the ball. Status reports sent via e-mail are no substitute for checking things out for yourself.

5. Know your employees. Spend time working closely with staff before relying on management by e-mail.

6. Establish a hierarchy of communication tools depending on urgency, such as regular mail to fax to e-mail to voice mail to real-time voice.

7. Agree on routine. Set expectations for how often workers should check their e-mail and voice mail so everyone is on the same page.

8. Know your lowest common denominator. File transfers with attached video clips, multimedia files, and other bells and whistles can create far more aggravation than they are worth, particularly to dial-up users. Drop back to the "stone age" of pure text messages whenever possible.

9. Publicly recognize employees for a job well done by sending a message to the whole team.

10. Don't discipline by e-mail. The medium is too impersonal and too easily misinterpreted to carry a rebuke or criticism.

- Mark Gibbs, with Chuck Papageorgiou, managing partner of ideasphere, and Gil Gordon, president of Gil Gordon Associates