It was 11:42 p.m. when I typed the message:
“Hey, sorry if I came off harsh during the meeting earlier.”
Then I stared at it. For ten minutes.
I didn’t hit send.
I told myself, “He needed that tough feedback.”
Then another voice said, “But did he need it delivered like that?”
I do and teach communication for a living.
I remind leaders that tone matters as much as timing.
Yet that day, I snapped. because I was tired, cornered, and chasing deadlines I didn’t create.
I deleted the message. Slept. Woke up still uneasy.
By morning, I decided to speak in person. He smiled, surprised.
“I was actually the one about to say sorry,” he said.
That’s when it hit me.
Two people willing to apologize can heal a team faster than one person trying to win an argument.
Sometimes the message you don’t send matters more than the one you do.