Pellamy
Kettlebright
On Thursday, a team lead I work with told me she had rewritten one email to her team four times and still had not sent it.
I asked her to read me just the first line out loud.
It opened with an apology for bothering everyone. The real news, that the Friday deadline was moving, was sitting in the last paragraph.
She laughed and said, "Sorry is basically my greeting."
This was a gap in square brackets in the first draft.
We moved the deadline sentence to the top while we were still on the call.
I recognised her email, because I did exactly the same thing when I first managed people. My emails opened with an apology too, and the news my team needed sat somewhere near the end.
I believe the real news belongs in the first line, and the kindness belongs in the line after it.