How to avoid fireworks by email

Naked Leader Week 795 – 5 November 2018

Time to Read: One catherine wheel (40 seconds – £10)

How to avoid fireworks by email

Picture the scene, you receive a long, nasty and very negative email.

It basically says that you and your department are useless, and that everything is all your fault. It is likely to be copied to everyone in the organisation and will invariably end with ‘Kind Regards’.

So, how to reply?

It depends on what outcome you want:

1. If you want to upset them, don’t reply at all.

2. If you want to confuse them, simply reply ‘Thank You’ – just to them, don’t copy anyone else (this ends copy copy syndrome).

3. If you want to go to war, then vent your wrath, anger and fury on them, write a long, defensive and even more aggressive reply…

or write that email and then send it to yourself only. Make sure you remove their name from the ‘To’ box before you begin writing!

Why do the second option? Because in 24 hours you will regret anything you write in anger now, and because what you write will actually contain information that will be helpful for when you take the lead in sorting any issues out, in person, properly and professionally.

With my love and best wishes

David

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