Call Me

Super. Long. Emails. ??????

PER MY EMAIL???

I'm talking about the sort of email:

1) Where the sender outlines, in exhaustive detail, why the intended recipient is WRONG!????

2) Followed by a series of highly detailed (seeming infallible) arguments about why the sender is inarguably RIGHT!??♂???

It's the kind of email that has A LOT of (passive aggressive?) emotion behind it. ??The sort that, in part through the sheer display of time and energy it must have taken just to COMPOSE such an opus ??, gives the sender a chance to show how much they are NOT messing around?

For bonus points, others may be cc'd. ?? For even MORE bonus points, there can be EVIDENCE ATTACHED: previous email exchanges or documents. ????It's the kind of email that presents such an open-and-shut case that RBG, Thurgood Marshall, and Matlock might stand to applaud in unison.?????

GIANT TIME SUCK??

Ever sent one of those emails? It can feel good.???

Every received one of those emails? It can feel terrifying.???

In either case, even though emails like this can take A LOT of time and energy - they're rarely very effective.???

Some say, when one feels?compelled to write such a message, that the thing to do is to go ahead and write a crazy long message (just to get it off your chest), and then wait 24 hours before you decide to send it. However, THAT sounds like a lot of work for naught - especially if you never send it, right??

Guess what? There's a better way. You need not worry about about sending or receiving an email like that ever again.???♂? Because I'm about to share the text to one of the most powerful emails you can ever send - especially when emotions are high. ?? If you want, you can even COPY the text I'm about to share so you'll have it for future reference.??

ARE YOU READY? WRITE THIS DOWN???HERE IT IS....

"Call Me" ??

Now you can do variations on that like:

"I hear what you're saying, let's talk." or????

"Sounds like you have strong feelings about this, when can we talk?" or???

"Hey, I just tried to call you - please call me back and let's talk."???

Whatever the case, the next time you feel compelled to compose and send a long, righteous wall of text - or reply to one - I invite you to go with your best version of, "Call me."???

FEATURES AND BENEFITS??

The benefits of sending "Call me" are many:

1) It's easy write and super fast to send! ??They'll have spent hours on a message you can reply to in 15 seconds.???

2) It's so much more effective. ?? If you (or a colleague ) are already so triggered that you feel the need to compose literature about the righteousness of your cause and the malevolence of theirs - you're past the point where email (or texting) is going to be an effective means of communication. ??The next conversation needs to be? in-person or at the very least: zoom/phone.?????

3) They don't want to talk? Cool. Then their issue must not be so important after all or you now have a green light to proceed without their input. They can let you know if they change their mind.?

When there's a miscommunication or misunderstanding or even a disagreement - skip the long emails and go straight to "call me." ??You'll be doing everybody - including yourself - a GREAT SERVICE.???

From the solitude of one's desk, sending the long righteous email can FEEL like courage, and it's not. ACTUALLY reaching out and engaging with the live human on the other side of that email, in real time, where there's no place to hide, where the issue at hand is going to get handled - that's real courage. That's real leadership.

If you get a chance to put this to use, let me know how it goes! ??I am rooting for you,??? Eric