{"id":5665,"date":"2017-01-27T06:07:43","date_gmt":"2017-01-27T12:07:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=5665"},"modified":"2017-01-27T06:07:43","modified_gmt":"2017-01-27T12:07:43","slug":"the-5-worst-mistakes-leaders-make-when-they-apologize-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2017\/01\/27\/the-5-worst-mistakes-leaders-make-when-they-apologize-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The 5 Worst Mistakes Leaders Make When they Apologize"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever had to apologize as a leader?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sure you have.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Any leader worth their salt will have taken a misstep somewhere along the line, and have had to own up to the error.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But these days it seems that an entire industry has emerged designed to coach leaders on ways to apologize without ever owning up the error they\u2019ve made.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve seen these.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s the insincere politician. It\u2019s the shallow celebrity. It can be anyone who feels compelled to apologize, but who manages to sound apologetic, without ever really acknowledging their wrong-doing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a leader your integrity matters too much to mess up when it comes to the apology. That\u2019s why you need to be careful to avoid what I call \u201cThe 5 Sorry Sorries\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The \u201cI\u2019m Sorry\u00a0If<\/em>\u2026\u201d Apology<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Some celebrities and politicians have become masters of this one.<\/p>\n

It usually goes like this: \u201cI\u2019m sorry if my drunken behavior caused you any offence\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

We hear the word \u201csorry\u201d, so we think that was an apology. But it really wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Let your \u201csorry\u201d be \u201csorry\u201d. Take out the \u201cif\u201d.<\/p>\n

The \u201cI\u2019m Sorry,\u00a0But<\/em>\u201d Apology<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Ever heard one like this?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry for being so rude, but I was really tired.\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, it sort of sounds like an apology, because it contains the word \u201csorry\u201d. However, as soon as you insert the word \u201cbut\u201d, it really isn\u2019t an apology anymore.<\/p>\n

The \u201cI\u2019m Sorry\u00a0to<\/em>\u00a0Everyone\u201d Apology<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n

An apology should be limited to the person or people directly offended by the offense.<\/p>\n

If you wronged a member of your board, you don\u2019t have to apologize to the entire congregation.<\/p>\n

The \u201cI\u2019m Sorry\u00a0for<\/em>\u00a0Everything\u201d Apology<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A friend of mine was asked by his church to issue a public apology for a series of leadership mis-steps, most of which were well beyond his responsibility.<\/p>\n

Own your stuff, but don\u2019t own everyone else\u2019s stuff.<\/p>\n

The \u201cI\u2019m Sorry\u2026Eventually<\/em>\u201d Apology<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The expression \u201cjustice delayed is justice denied\u201d has a cousin; \u201cAn apology delayed is an apology denied.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t make the mistake of waiting too long to issue your apology. Own up as soon as reasonably possible.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s face it. If you\u2019re in leadership for any length of time, you\u00a0will<\/em>\u00a0blow it at some point. And you will need to issue an apology.<\/p>\n

But by avoiding these sorry \u201csorries\u201d you can make your road back to credibility much smoother.<\/p>\n

What have you learned about saying \u201csorry\u201d in your leadership?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever had to apologize as a leader? Sure you have. Any leader worth their salt will have taken a misstep somewhere along the line, and have had to own up to the error. But these days it seems that an entire industry has emerged designed to coach leaders on ways to apologize without ever owning…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[440,478,7,581],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-failing","category-featured","category-leadership","category-self-assessment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5665"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5667,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5665\/revisions\/5667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}