Apologizing isn’t so much an art as a sport. When approached as a skill to build, governed by a few simple rules, the apology almost always achieves its goal — despite any fumbles during delivery. When it’s over, everyone wins.Degree of difficulty: Medium to hard, depending on aversion to eye contact.
- Forget dodgeball; apologizing is a contact sport
“Eye to eye, face to face, that’s the one way it works,” said Maribeth Kuzmeski, author of “The Engaging Child” (Red Zone Publishing) and “The Connectors” (Wiley), both relationship skills books. “My son, when he was younger … (would) write a note of apology. We would say, ‘We’re so happy you took the time to write us this note. We’d really like you to talk to us about it.’”
Now, her kids and their peers apologize by text message. “That seems to be accepted. Apologies are situational sometimes. But, as a parent, if my daughter apologized by text message to me, I would say, ‘Are you kidding me?’ Teenager to teenager may be one way, but teen to adult or adult to adult, if you really mean it, you go face to face and suck it up.”
- Find a segue
Rolling into the apology is often the toughest part, especially if the tone up to now has been light. Kuzmeski suggests a transitional, “Hey, I wanted to talk to you about something.” That signals the subject matter is important.