Tuesday, January 23, 2007

A good apology

Leading executive coach Marshall Goldsmith's new book, What Got You Here Won't Get You There, hit #1 on Amazon.com today -- an impressive feat for any book, let alone a business book. Surely, one reason why the book is #1 is that you don't have to be an exec -- or even at work -- to benefit from it. I particularly liked Goldsmith's simple, smart advice on apologizing. He writes:

Once you're prepared to apologize, here's the instruction manual:
You say, "I'm sorry."
You add, "I'll try to do better in the future." Not absolutely necessary,
but prudent in my view because when you let go of the past, it's nice to hint at
a brighter future.
And then...you say nothing.
Don't explain it. Don't complicate it. Don't qualify it. You only risk
saying something that will dilute it.

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