Not everyone is a troll. It’s not like everyone is trying to make you angry. But it happens. You read a response, or hear a comment on a conference call – and it makes you furious.
It’s easy to react. Easy to respond quickly in a defensive posture. And even if you’re calm, it’s easy to engage.
Here’s the good news: you get no extra credit points for a quick or smart reply. And if you skip the response, you also don’t lose points for losing your cool.
So here’s my trick.
Don’t reply to non-questions.
Most of the negativity I hear doesn’t come in the form of a question. Normally it’s some passive aggressive comment. Or just a purely negative statement.
I try not to reply at all. Why? Because they haven’t asked a question.
If you stick to only answering questions that are asked, you’ll help yourself tremendously by rarely reacting to negativity.