SANDRA SMITH (HOST): Ladies, do you ever feel like you're not getting the respect that you deserve around the office? Well, it could actually just be your fault. But we can fix all of this for you with the help of a special expert that we've got here this morning. An answer may be in your emails. Joining me now to discuss this is millennial expert and associate director for WORKS, a career consultancy company, Jill Jacinto. Alright, please do help us. I want to start out with an example of what you might write in your email that could be really bad. For example, “Dear Mr. President, I'm just writing to say that I'm sorry for taking so long to get back to you. I think I have a plan for the strategic direction of the company in the coming year. I'm no expert, but ...” -- it's those qualifiers, right, Jill?
JILL JACINTO: Exactly. It's those filler words, it's that lack of confidence you're conveying when you're sending emails like this. You really need to think and reread and know that you are an expert. You have that confidence. You've been hired to do this job for a reason.
SMITH: And so you can actually hold your mouse over the word that's underlined revealing that it's a bad word to use, and it will explain why it's bad. For example, using “sorry” frequently in an email undermines your gravitas and makes you appear unfit for leadership.
JACINTO: Exactly. And women have a tendency to apologize for things that are completely out of our control. So what you want to do, remove that sorry and say, “I know about this situation, I'm taking care it and I'm solving the problem for you.”
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SMITH: So for some reason -- and maybe this is men too -- but women are afraid of putting an idea out there and getting shot down and turned down for it, so oftentimes we'll write, “I'm no expert but ...”
JACINTO: Yeah, writing “you're no expert” essentially sends a red flag to whoever is receiving your email. And they're starting to think, maybe she is not an expert. Maybe I should be passing along this assignment to someone else. When, in fact, you are an expert. You've been hired to do the job. You've been put in this position because of your expertise in this industry.
