Seven email openers that sound like the person in charge

Six days have gone by with your message still sitting unopened in his inbox. Maybe you start a reply with "Just checking in on this!" and add an exclamation point so nobody reads irritation into it. You are irritated. That exclamation point is what tips the reader off. The new note repeats the first one, with a line at the top conceding that the first one fell flat.

"Just checking in" neither makes a request, nor suggests a path forward, nor names any deadline. It reads like a nudge from someone unsure she has the right to nudge. The decision-maker does not check in on anything. She states what comes next. Here are seven openers, spread across five scenarios, written in her voice.

1. Chasing a request nobody has answered

Tempting, though feeble: "Just checking in on this!"

Sharper: "Flagging that I need your sign-off by Thursday to lock the vendor date." Or: "Bringing this back up." Should I not hear from you by Friday, I'll go ahead with option B."

The reason: both lines name a date and a consequence. The first one hands the reader an easy next step. The second turns his silence into a choice he is making in writing, which is a very different thing from silence.

2. Requesting time from someone above you

Appealing but weak: "I'd love to pick your brain sometime if you have a spare minute."

Sharper: "I have one question about the Q1 pricing decision. Twenty minutes next week?"

Reason: subject, duration, window. Senior people tend to agree to bounded requests and let open-ended ones slide, since an open request is work they must scope before they can even turn it down.

3. Sending work for review

Appealing but weak: "Sorry to bother you, but here's a draft, let me know if you have any thoughts!"

Better: "Here is the document for your look." Stronger: "I need your take on the pricing section; the rest is settled."

The reason: "any thoughts" opens the door to reworking the entire document. Narrowing the question to one section gets you a decision on that section, the very thing you came for, and it takes far less of their time.

4. Delivering news nobody wants

Appealing but weak: "Unfortunately there's been a bit of a delay, so sorry about this."

Stronger: "The launch slips to the 14th. The root cause: the integration failed load testing. We're fixing it now and I'll confirm on Monday." Or, for something longer: "Two things you should know and one decision I need from you."

The apology version makes the reader soothe your feelings before he even learns what went wrong. The direct version gives the fact, the cause, the plan and the date, so he can pass it upward unchanged.

5. Turning down a request you can't absorb

Appealing but weak: "I'm so sorry, I'm completely swamped right now, but maybe later?"

Preferred: "This isn't something I can pick up this week. Lena in Parma has the capacity and the background, so I've copied her."

The reason: a refusal that comes with a next person is really a handoff. You've addressed the only thing the sender wanted, and you did it without spending a paragraph on your calendar. Whether you are on a downtown Cleveland deadline or working from Parma, the logic holds.

The rule underlying all seven is the same.

Each message from the person in charge settles three things within its first two lines: what it concerns, what he needs from you, and when. Put those in and you can delete every "just," every "sorry" and every exclamation point you were using to soften them. No one reading a reply like that will assume you were curt. They will assume you were busy, which is accurate.

Forward this to whoever on your team just sent a client "just checking in" from an office in Shaker Heights or Westlake.