If someone had asked me ten years ago what I thought of emojis in a professional context, I would’ve probably said that they don’t belong—at all.

I saw them as a new fad: silly playthings of a younger generation. (There’s perhaps some truth to the old adage that everything invented before you turned 30 is natural and was always there, whereas everything that emerged afterwards is an abomination.)

How wrong I was.

Firstly, my sense of history was lacking. The concept of emojis is far from new: Most people are familiar with the emoticons that emerged in the 1980s and 90s, such as :-). But already in 1969, author Vladimir Nabokov proposed that “...there should exist a special typographical sign for a smile—some sort of concave mark, a supine round bracket.” And of course, in many cultures, pictographs have a history spanning millennia.

Second, emojis are actually an invaluable communication tool, especially in today’s world of remote and hybrid work. Let me explain why.

The importance of a lead’s written messages is amplified in a remote or hybrid setting

In my experience, a leader’s greatest impact on their team is not really in the few grand moments of leadership, like when presenting bold visions or creating innovative strategies.

To be sure, these are important too, but they are far outweighed by the hundreds of small, daily interactions we have with our teams, each of which impacts the team member and the relationship.

In the office, these small moments comprise things like coffee machine chats and hallway encounters, desk catch-ups and conversations over lunch.

But the less time you spend at the office, the more these opportunities disappear. When you’re a remote leader, what you’re left with are basically two categories of interactions with your team: Zoom calls and all kinds of written communication, such as instant messages, emails, or comments in documents.

So, like it or not, these are the media through which you as a leader can influence your team, for better or for worse. It is here—in writing and meetings—that remote leadership actually lives.

And of these two, written communication tends to be far more frequent. Even pre-pandemic statistics indicated that office workers sent some kind of written message to a team member at least 50-100 times a day. And that number has no doubt only increased with the rise of working from home.

Thanks to this volume, any strength or weakness in your written communication will be amplified through sheer repetition.

The pros and cons of the written medium

As a medium for professional communication, writing has some clear benefits. You can, for example, add links to resources, or even a graph to better illustrate a point. What’s more, the conversation is automatically captured for later reference, so you can easily remind yourself of what was discussed.

Perhaps most importantly though, it’s an asynchronous process, meaning that you have time to think about your responses. This last benefit is the primary reason why I love writing: it gives me time to think through my message instead of just spewing out whatever comes to mind first.

But even I have to admit the medium has its weaknesses too. Perhaps the greatest of these is that it lacks non-verbal information like facial expressions, gestures, and intonation. These play an oft-underappreciated part in our communication, particularly in clarifying our intentions and emotional tone. As a result, written messages are easily misunderstood, which can provoke conflict, erode trust, and hinder collaboration within the team.

Psychologist and author Daniel Goleman studied this phenomenon in emails. He discovered that for every email you write, the recipient tends to interpret it as one degree more hostile than you intended. So when you send a positive message, the other person will read its tone as neutral. And if you send a neutral one, it will seem negative.

Of course, the same mechanics apply when they respond to you, so the conversation can easily escalate into hostility, without any ill will on the side of either party.

Literally no-one wants this.

So, how can you adapt your writing to avoid these misunderstandings? If only there were some easy way of clarifying your intent and emotional tone in writing. Perhaps, for example, a set of symbols with facial expressions that you could add to your message?

Emojis: A great communication tool for any 21st-century remote leader

Of all the habits and tools that can make a leader’s written communication more likely to build trust, connection and Psychological Safety in their team, emojis are no doubt one of the most impactful.

With just a few symbols you can convey the emotional tone you want, making up for the lost emotional subtext when facial expressions, intonation, and gestures are stripped away. And the effect is surprisingly powerful: a recent paper in the journal Behaviour and Information Technology found that “the use of emoji faces in computer-mediated communication produces neural responses that are similar to those that are observed in face-to-face communication.”

Let’s look at some concrete examples of how this works. Imagine you’ve received the messages below from your lead:

You may notice that they’re a little blunt, like maybe the sender is somehow annoyed or displeased?

Let’s see what happens when we add in one of the most versatile emojis around: the sweat smile.

As you can see, the tone becomes more light and playful—something that says: “Hey, we’re on the same side here.” Compared to the previous messages, these are far more likely to receive a constructive response. What’s more, they signal to the other person that you respect them and care about the relationship, both of which are crucial factors in leading someone successfully.

Of course, if you’ve never used emojis in a work context before, it may not be obvious how you can get started. You may even feel anxious about it. What if you get it wrong? Say you want to tell someone you enjoyed some delicious aubergine for lunch, but then the conversation takes on an unexpectedly strange tone?

In general, it’s best to start with simple and safe smiling faces, such as 😊😅& 🥳. Make your intent as unambiguous as possible, and avoid irony—it’s so easy to misunderstand, and misunderstandings are the very thing you’re trying to avoid.

The good news is that when you start using emojis in your text, you’ll start receiving more of them in return too, and this helps you pick up the prevalent style. And if someone uses an emoji you don’t understand, search for it online or just ask the person what they meant—there’s no shame in that either.

This learning journey will continue throughout your career, because typically, every company and team has its own unique, constantly evolving emoji culture.

And finally, do yourself a favor and look up the keyboard shortcut for inserting emojis wherever you need them. This makes it much faster and less arduous to use them, which in turn makes it more likely that you actually will.

Conclusion

Like I said at the beginning of this post, I used to be a skeptic when it came to using emojis in professional writing. And if, at that time, someone had tried to educate me about how useful they are for communicating emotional subtext, I would’ve probably said something like: “Why do I need to spend time on this? My writing style is my writing style, and people know I don’t mean to be obnoxious. Surely everyone here is a grown-up professional and can get over it if my messages are a bit blunt?”

And of course, yes, usually everyone does get over it.

But think about it: every time a team member receives a curt message from their lead, they need to process why it made them feel anxious or disrespected. And because you send hundreds of messages every week, these small, disagreeable experiences gradually drain energy and forment resentment in your team. Is that really the impact you want to have?

Of course not. You want to create an atmosphere of Psychological Safety, where people feel respected and can focus on their work. Where they know that they can aim high and take risks, and you’ve got their back. Where they feel comfortable challenging each other and you, knowing that they will always receive a mindful message in return.

You’ll never create such an atmosphere if day after day you hammer your team with messages that are at best ambivalent, and at worst, disrespectful. A few extra seconds clarifying your messages with an emoji or two will pay off in spades when it comes to building trust and team spirit.

So emojis are a valuable tool that help bridge the very gaps that the written medium suffers from. In this era of hybrid and remote work, writing is more important than ever, which is why I recommend every hybrid and remote leader adopt emojis in their writing.

And if you’d like to go even deeper and also learn leadership habits and tools around other key aspects of great hybrid leadership—good remote meetings, building trust, and offering clarity—consider joining the next cohort of Ben’s course: Hybrid Leadership Habits on Maven.

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