Why You Shouldn’t Send That Angry Email

CEO Michael Hyatt says he learned his lesson when it comes to sending angry email:

Several years ago, I wrote a fourteen-page diatribe to a business associate. I skewered him. I was right. He was wrong. And I had the proof. I laid it out in meticulous detail. I prosecuted my case like a lawyer before the bar. I sent it off with fire in my eyes and a healthy does of self-satisfaction in my heart. That’ll show him, I thought.

I eagerly waited for his response. After a few weeks, I still hadn’t heard a word. So I re-read the letter and was embarrassed. My response was way out of proportion to the stimulus that provoked it. While I was technically right, I was relationally wrong. I never should have sent the letter. I regretted that I had acted so childishly.

Hyatt says that thankfully his email recipient acted like nothing had happened the next time they saw one another, and that he’d learned a lesson. Every single one of us has experienced email regret at one point or another. Hyatt’s suggestions for avoiding that include a self-enforced cool-down period, and calling a meeting to talk things out face to face (*gasp!*). How do you inoculate yourself from email regret? Let us know in the comments.