Seven email openers that sound like the person in charge
Your message has sat unread in his inbox for six days now. Picture yourself drafting a reply that opens with "Just checking in on this!", the exclamation point doing its best to hide your impatience. You are irritated. That exclamation point is the tell that you are anxious. The new note repeats what the first one said, with a line at the top admitting the first one fell flat.
"Just checking in" neither asks for anything, offers anything nor names any date. It sounds like someone who doubts she is allowed to follow up at all. The person in charge never sends a message like that. She states what happens next. Here are seven openers, drawn from five situations, written in her voice.
One. Chasing a request that has gone quiet
Tempting but flimsy: "Just checking in on this!"
Stronger: "Bringing this back up, since I need your sign-off by Thursday to lock in the vendor date." Or: "Bringing this back up. Without word from you by Friday, I'll move ahead with option B."
The reason: both versions attach a deadline and a result. The first leaves the reader to figure out what to do. The second makes his silence an active decision he has to own in writing, which is very different from saying nothing.
Two. Requesting a slot from a senior leader
Vague and hopeful: "I'd love to pick your brain sometime if you have a spare minute."
Specific instead: "I have one question about the Q1 pricing decision. Twenty minutes next week?"
Why: subject, duration, timeframe. Senior leaders say yes to bounded requests and let open ones slide, since an open request is work they must scope before they can even turn it down.
Three. Sending work for review
Weaker still: "Sorry to bother you, but here's a draft, let me know if you have any thoughts!"
Better: "Here's the draft for your look-over, Louisville team. Narrower: "Your view on the pricing section is what I need; everything else is already settled."
The problem with "any thoughts" is that it invites him to reopen the entire document. Pointing to one section earns a decision on that section, which is what you needed, in a fraction of the time.
Four. Delivering news nobody wants
Apologetic and blurry: "Unfortunately there's been a bit of a delay, so sorry about this."
Clear instead: "The launch slips to the 14th. Here is why: the integration did not pass load testing. A fix is underway and I'll confirm on Monday." Or, for a fuller update: "Two things you should know and one decision I need from you."
The apologetic wording makes the reader handle your discomfort before he even learns the facts. The blunt wording delivers the fact, the reason, the plan and the date, so he can forward it upward without rewriting a word.
6. Declining work without leaving the sender stranded
Excessively apologetic: "I'm so sorry, I'm completely swamped right now, but maybe later?"
Direct and kind: "I can't take this on this week. Lena in Shively has the capacity and the background, and I've copied her here."
A refusal that comes with a next step functions as a handoff, not a dead end. You addressed the actual reason the sender wrote, and you managed it without a single paragraph about your schedule.
The principle underlying all seven
Each message from the person in charge settles three things within its first two lines: what it concerns, what she needs from you, and the deadline. Once you include those, you can strike every "just," every "sorry" and every exclamation point you used to cushion the note. Nobody reading a message like that will feel slighted. They will suppose you were tied up, and in fact you were.
Share this with the colleague on your team in Greater Louisville who just sent "just checking in" to a client.