Angry #communication requires a #SleepOnIt strategy. Your response and how it is taken will be better off. #QuoteADay #Day27 #edchat #edu
Ever gotten caught up in an angry email war? It's nasty isn't it? You get an email that you think is particularly negative and before you have the time to reflect, you've shot back a message that takes it to the next level. Nobody wins in these exchanges, and while the hope might be that you feel better afterwards, you're often left wishing you had never engaged in the situation in the first place.
While angry communication (whether by email, phone, or face-to-face) can't be ignored, it can be dealt with appropriately. I recommend a "Sleep on It" strategy. By putting time between your receipt of the negativity and your response to it, you can approach the situation from a more reflective standpoint, and therefore present a tone in your communication that speaks of "excellence" rather than "explosion."
Note that this "Sleep on It" approach works for phone and face-to-face as well. When a conversation gets heated, never feel as if you can't say, "You know what, I feel that this conversation is going somewhere where we don't want it to go, and rather than become negative or personal, let's talk again tomorrow and see where we get."
It's quite possible nothing will have changed in a day, but it is also quite possible that everything will have.
Cooler heads do always prevail, and cooler heads are rarely left wondering about the relationships they've helped destroy.
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