Write your email twice. Write the first time for content – get your message across honestly. Then read it slowly, imagining the other person’s face. This will humanize them for you and help you avoid minimizing the strong possibility they will construe something differently than what you intended. Try to put yourself in the other person’s chair and think about how they might feel at each point in your message. Then re-write it with safety in mind. Don’t compromise the content by sugarcoating it or watering it down. Rather, notice those places they may misread your intentions and clarify what you do and don’t want them to hear from you (or see on your face). For example, you might have written, “On the last three software releases the Bangalore testing team has missed 71 errors.” You imagine their faces as they read it – so you add: “I have no question about the Bangalore team’s desire to perform. And yet…” In less formal relationships, we’ve seen skillful communicators even describe the facial expression they are wearing as they write something to help control others’ interpretation.