Kindness…Cost nothing to give and is priceless to receive. Last week was a challenging week for me. I had some car challenges with my children, some children challenges without cars, some physical challenges with a couple of injuries but nothing bothered me as much as being disrespected by someone who I never met before.
I own some commercial real estate where I have a tenent that is part of a huge corporation. The individuals I have been in contact with have been pleasant, cooperative and accommodating until Wednesday. As per their request, I was having a new alarm system installed for the building this week and apparently it wasn’t quick enough for this one individual. I receive a very unkind borderline disrespectful email from someone wha has absolutely no idea who I am or how I operate. After she sends the email, she doesn’t pick up the phone so I could discuss. She had another call to be on. Not cool after she sends this very harsh demanding email.
Long story short, we had a conference call the next afternoon and I explained how I felt disrespected and the email was unwarrrented and unnecessary. I have been very accommodating to every request and was legitimately attacked for no reason. She proceeded to tell me how she deals with over 120 landlords and she is part of a huge corporation. My response was, “That’a great but not all landlords are created equal. No need to be disrespectful.” At the end of the conversation she apologized and I of course have moved on. This goes to show how important it is to just be kind. Emails could often be taken the wrong way because of the lack of inflection in the writing. It’s important to be sensitive to this and put a little kindness in the email; it goes along way. Even emojis can help a bit. I also explained to the woman that even though this is business, and you are part of a large organization, it is still people working with people. This is a lesson we should never forget, once inter-personal relations are gone, what is left? Might as well have computers talk to computers.
The good news is that she understood my point, apologized and hopefully will be a little kinder to the next person. My hope for all of you in the business world is that you never forget that no matter how big of a business you run, you remember that are still working with people. If we only remember the lessons we learned in kindergarten about playing nice. Remember, kindness cost nothing but is worth everything.
