improper emailsIT Project Hostile Emails to Wide Distribution Lists

Previously, I offered insight and suggestions on the topic of reducing SAP project stress in a two-part series:

Reduce SAP Project Stress: Part 1
Reduce SAP, ERP, or Technology Project Stress: Part 2
 

 

In the Project Management Group on LinkedIn however, someone raised an interesting question that I have had to deal with on a few projects. They asked the following:

“How do you respond to a senior project member who wrongly accuses you and copies your team and boss in an email?”

Because I have been doing SAP projects since 1994 in highly charged corporate environments , I have experienced this situation a few times.

Someone will speak out about something but not know what they are talking about. They may be completely clueless or they may be wrong, but the message is inappropriate and has now gone out to a number of individuals. Fortunately, you can make effective responses to this situation.

1. Do not respond immediately, unless there is some absolute imperative that you must. Your best bet is to appear professional, let things cool, and get your own emotions in check so that you do not escalate this.

About half of the time this has happened to me, as long as I do not react in a rash manner, the issues resolve quickly. By not responding immediately, I have experienced the following corrections where I came out looking like a hero:

– On a few occasions, some senior leaders on the client side (or the consulting side depending on who initiated the flame) have responded back to the email initiator and corrected them.

– Other times, the individual was known as a hot-tempered instigator. Because they did not receive the immediate response they wanted, I had two occasions where the person became irrational, tried to escalate the situation, and exposed that they lacked composure. One of those two was fired shortly afterward.

2. Write the response email immediately, but do not send it. This way, you can vent some of your frustrations and clarify some of your thoughts. Save the message, come back to it later (generally a day later), and then rewrite it in a much more dispassionate manner.

3. Depersonalize your response if you do send it. Avoid the use of any personal pronouns. In other words, deal with the issue and not the person. If they continue to attack you and you continue to point back to the issue, they will expose themselves as unprofessional.

4. Always be professional and try to empathize with the initiator, even if you believe they are vindictive or have some ulterior motive. In other words, you might say something such as, “I understand why this might be thought, but please consider…” Their response will speak volumes.

5. Your response should show everyone that you would like to schedule a meeting to review the issue face-to-face. The message should make it clear that there is no reason to take up everyone’s time and this can be resolved with the key stakeholders.

Your professional response speaks volumes. As a project manager, you will gain everyone’s respect. Everyone who knows about the issue will realize that even if they screw up or get a little over the line, you will deal with them professionally as well. This reduces project stress and defuses potentially ugly situations.

Some Past SAP Project Experiences with Improper Emails with Wide Distributions

While at Hitachi Consulting, I was a mentor for one consultant who experienced a similar situation and gave all of the counsel listed here. They followed these suggestions and let the situation die down. The next day, the client individual who had improperly responded openly apologized. Things went more smoothly from then on.

On the flip side, I have seen this provocative behavior from several consultants who were frauds. They hide their own incompetence by sabotaging your ability to manage a project, or by creating unnecessary conflicts with other co-workers. Because the SAP world is full of frauds, they create diversions from looking hard at their work product and experience.

I have seen this type of provocative behavior from client employees who were worried about layoffs and saw the attacks as a way to look important. I have also seen this type of behavior from client employees who lied about their own talents/skills/experience to get onto the SAP project. Once they found out they were in over their heads, they created havoc to distract from their lack of contribution.

The reasons really do not matter as much as how you as a project leader or participant deal with the situation. Handling stressful or highly charged situations is not easy, but in this line of work, you will have to deal with it.

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