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February
6, 2003:
The Power of an Apology
Interview
with Ken Blanchard, author of The
One-Minute Apology
Mike
Carruthers:
When you think about it, probably one of the best opportunities
to improve a relationship is to apologize when you've made a mistake
in that relationship.
Ken
Blanchard:
I think people who admit they make a mistake rise up in people's
stature.
Ken Blanchard,
author of the legendary book The
One-Minute Manager, has a new book out titled The
One-Minute Apology.
I had
a guy I spoke to the other day. He said he was walking down
the hall the other morning and the president of the company
walked right by him, even though he had greeted the president
with a "Good morning" and all. He's sitting in his
office and ten minutes later, the president comes by and knocks
on the door and says, "I want to apologize to you. You
didn't deserve that and I don't want to be that kind of person."
And the guy's stature went up.
There are
two parts to the apology, says Ken. One is to acknowledge what
you did wrong and second is to pledge to never do it again,
but you don't ask for forgiveness.
Because
that puts pressure. Suppose I did something to you and I apologize
and I said, "Do you forgive me?" You're on the spot
right now because you might still have some feelings about that.
You appreciate my apology, but now I'm putting the pressure
on you. Are you a good guy or not? Are you going to forgive
me or not? And I don't want to put that pressure on you, I want
to keep the pressure on me by saying, "I want to say one
last thing. I want to make a commitment to make sure I never
do this again."
For transcripts,
visit our website, somethingyoushouldknow.net,
I'm Mike Carruthers and that's "Something You Should Know."
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