My mother use to say often “patience is a virtue, possess it if you can, but it’s found seldom in a woman, and never in a man.” Whether that’s true for all men or not, I don’t know, but personally, I consider myself one of the most impatient people I know. In fact, if you find that hard to believe, just ask my bride. As of late, I feel as if God has designs on putting on a clinic in how to remain patient.

As of the end of August, I’ve assumed the position as president in our group of companies, which has me working much closer with many of our team members. Admittedly, my highest and best strength isn’t managing people, nor the day-to-day of a business, however, as a 20-year entrepreneur, it comes with the territory. As we’ve continued to make adjustments, many of our team members have inherited additional responsibilities, that are laborious, taxing, and in many ways exposing to our vulnerabilities as an organization.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve made it a point to get in front of our entire team, to communicate how the company is maneuvering through the market challenges, but primarily in an attempt to get back to the basics of business, and our core values. “Simple” things like what it means to work as a team, how to effectively communicate, what accountability looks like, and why transparency is so important. I’m doing everything I can to quickly eliminate any secrecy, and silos that exist in the organization, all while simultaneously attempting to open the books, in a healthy and structured way, so that everyone in the organization can begin to understand what makes for a healthy business. I know right.

For the most part, I believe I’m being well received, or at least I’m being told as much. However, the biggest challenge of all; bringing people together. We have a ton of talent, but let’s face it; people don’t like change in general, and especially when it calls into question our quality of work, contributions, etc. No one likes their cheese moved, especially when it’s covering a hole in the floor.

Last night, I received an email, and not the kind anyone likes to get, but particularly right before you go to bed. I wrote two responses last night, and then another this morning, and sent none of them. In fact, deleted all three. Then I spent a few minutes looking up a number of articles about email etiquette, but then decided that instead, I’d respond in a different way; by providing my own list of email do’s and don’ts, so in the spirit of us all growing together, here we go.

Dan’s 3-Point Guide to Email Etiquette

1. Use email to exchange information only – it’s not a medium for communication
2. Don’t email anyone when you’re angry or frustrated – see point #1
3. Words have meaning, people have feelings – see point #1 and #2

Just because letters arranged in a particular order make up words, it doesn’t mean that the arrangement of those words make up the intended meaning. Being that I’m now so close to my tribe, I feel incredibly challenged, and also very humbled. Reminded that no matter how talented a person, skilled or experienced, what’s most important is how we treat others. For the most part, that is measured by how we speak to or about others. Hard to do, but even harder to do consistently.

Passion can be disguised as arrogance. Arrogance can be disguised as courage. Courage can be disguised as insecurity. However, Kindness needs no disguise, as it has no enemies. – dlh

#humble #kind #hungry