A good business apology can open, not close, doors! Always be open to apologies for the mistakes you have made. Learn from the 4 steps below for the perfect business apology.
Acknowledge What Happened
Acknowledging the event serves two purposes: It validates people ideas on what occurred, and it defines the mess-up so people know what you’re apologizing for. This is a very simple first step, but it’s an important one to take. Part of apologizing involves communicating empathy and convincing the other party that you understand how your behavior affects others. Mentioning the event sets you up for an empathetic, simple apology.
Admit Your Mistake
After acknowledging the event, you have to own your mistake. This is the most important part of the apology. Oftentimes, people make excuses, blame others or don’t appropriately take responsibility. Apologizing can be awkward, but if you take responsibility, your peers and manager may respect you more in the long run. A good apology exposes one’s character, so treat the action as just that; an exercise in good character.
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A good apology doesn’t involve extensive explanations about why the event happened. Moving into this territory can bog you down in the apology. You don’t want to focus on why something happened and its lead-up. Instead, own your mistake and move on to how you can improve the situation. Focusing on an explanation can also sound defensive. You may feel like you want to say your piece, and sometimes it’s justified, but oftentimes the person you’re apologizing to won’t care about your original intentions. The mistake happened, and its time to figure out how to remedy it.
Focus On What You Learned
The best thing you can do during an apology is talk about what lesson the situation has taught you or your team. Mistakes happen in the business world, and some company cultures actually encourage mistakes because they’re growth opportunities. By prioritizing what you have learned from the mistake, you can shift the discussion toward something positive. Everyone makes mistakes; the real problem comes from allowing the same mistake to happen more than once.
Show the concerned people you learned the lesson by explaining, in a sentence or two, what lesson you learned. People like managers and colleagues want to see their peers evolve and learn. By focusing on the lesson in your apology, you can communicate that you’re an intelligent, self-aware employee or boss who can handle responsibility and problems with grace.
Suggest A Plan or Solution
After talking about the lesson you’ve learned, suggest a plan, talk through a solution, or mention a way you can help rectify the situation. This is the second stage to shifting the discussion away from the mistake and toward a positive outcome. By communicating your willingness to help, you back up the lesson you learned from the mistake with meaningful action.
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If you follow these steps and provide an apology, you’ll put yourself in the best position possible after a big mistake in the business workplace. Each situation is different, but if you follow this plan, your co-workers, manager or employees will eventually come around.
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