Tuesday, June 25, 2013

The power of an apology


Never under estimate the power of an apology…no matter how delayed.  A woman from my office just stopped by to apologize for her behavior from over a year ago. 
 
In HR, you’re used to being beat up (verbally) by employees that don’t like what you have to say, so her screaming hissy fit wasn’t all that traumatizing.  But I forever associate her name with her temper tantrum and how nasty she was in that moment. 

These days our paths rarely cross and I have no influence on her professional future….yet she took the time to seek me out.  Her spontaneous apology couldn’t have been comfortable and frankly took guts.  It made me wonder if people associate my name with a bad behavior from years/months/days ago.   

We all have bad moments but I remembered a valuable lesson of an apology from a very unlikely teacher.  A very humbling experience....

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