I teach the power of being a patient leader and when I shared this with a group I was coaching, a leader’s eyes lit up and he said, “That’s it! I need to be more patient.”
There’s a million and one ways patience is needed in leadership and life, so I was curious and asked him in what way he needs to be more patient.
“Email!” he exclaimed. “I need to be more patient in my use of email.”
He went on to explain that his emails are rushed, rife with emotion and innuendo, and not as effective as he would like them to be. When he reflects on an email moments after he hits send, he thinks of a million ways he could have done it better. He often has to correct misunderstandings or apologize for an emotional response to the situation he emailed about, all of which takes time and has eroded trust with some people.
Sound familiar to you? It sure resonated for me.
We unpacked the situation a bit more and then moved in for a landing with this question, “What items would need to be completed on a checklist before hitting send?”
He and his colleagues created a checklist as a series of questions to answer before hitting send:
- Is it constructive?
- How might the message be received?
- Does this email deal with facts or is there emotion baked in?
- Did I wait 15 minutes after writing it to hit “send”?
- Does everyone in the cc: line need to be there?
What questions should be on your list to make you a more patient emailer?
Share your list in the comments below and let’s create a question bank for other readers to use to create their checklist.
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