Are you proud of the Email that you just wrote?
The energy and time people put into writing emails should be applauded.
It gets people to change their thoughts. It coaxes some people into taking decisions that they otherwise wouldn’t have taken.
If you guess it wouldn’t work, then what’s the point of writing that email?
Then, are you responsible for what happens once you hit the ‘Send’ button in your email client app?
If your email obligates someone to approve a scope change request that was otherwise disputed, are you responsible for she getting worst or best quality software?
In other words, are you responsible for the outcomes of what you’re advocating in that email?
There are two ways to deal with that:
- You act as an advocate representing the apparently guilty work. It’s up to the judge (the client) to decide. Your job is to do the best you can, not to decide on the outcome. If someone asks you can always say you did your best and you would have some concrete data also to prove that you’re right.
- You act as an owner by assuming total responsibility of its outcomes. You hold the people around you accountable and cause changes. Without you, the change would never happen.
Is there any other possibility? Still, many of us write ineffective emails without assuming any attachment to its outcome.
Before hitting the ‘Send’ button, pause and read the email you just wrote:
- Look at the email with its audience’s eyes.
- Read it aloud by having its audience’s ears.
- Understand exactly what’s conveyed between the lines.
Don’t hit the ‘Send’ button if you’re not proud of whatever you have written in that email. The same philosophy applies to an instant message, a blog post, or a news article. Did you see that?
