Recently a friend that agreed to work on a project with me went silent on me. I decided to handle the “ghosting” in a different way than peppering him with “Where are you????” or worse yet angry emails or just giving up on communications.
I picked up the phone (you know, that device for social media and playing games) and used it as… a phone. He answered and I simply asked “You’ve been quiet lately. Is everything ok?” and then I just listened.
It turns out he had a family emergency come up and was dealing with a lot of stress. I wished him the best and said “a business discussion can wait. Take care of family.”
I did this based on advice a good friend gave me a while back: “It’s not about YOU. Most of the time something else is going on that has nothing to do with you.”
Hope that shifts the way you handle similar situations in the future!
