sunlit_music | Entries tagged with how to apologise

Hi there all,

Learn how to make an effective apology here: http://norah.livejournal.com/266481.html Of course, part of what makes an apology effective is actually meaning what you say. But the link has vital information on what else you can do to apologise effectively.

My favourite bit is this:

Those are the three most basic steps. Once you've got those, you can improvise a bit more, and negotiate, explain, or dialogue in addition to your apology, using the same basic structure.

"I know you feel terrible when I do this, and I don't want to make you feel terrible. But this is really important to me. How can we compromise?"
"I'm sorry I've made such a mess of this. I can see that it's making you miserable, but when I made my choices I wasn't aware of some really important facts. Now that I know, I can make better choices; let's work on our communication to make sure it doesn't happen again."
"I'm sorry I did that. I didn't know it would make you so angry, and I apologize. But I'm not sure I understand why you are so angry. Can we talk about this a little more so I can keep from doing that inadvertently in future?"

As long as you're still taking responsibility, acknowledging the consequences of your actions, and trying to make it better, you should still be able to craft an effective apology.

Oh! And read this. Inappropriate (and hurtful) apologies you shouldn't ever make: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-apology