How to Apologize to Make it Better

If you ever find yourself in a position where someone is apologizing or they want to make something up to you, insist on ACTIONABLE growth. Why? Because it is embarrassingly easy for people to lip service their way back into our good graces. Keep reading to learn how to apologize to someone in a way that actually makes things better!

We’ve all heard these before:

“I’ll never do it again!” or

“Just give me another chance!” and

“It only happened once!”

You know what these aren’t? They aren’t actionable. Notice how there isn’t any sort of future action other than wait and see what happens next time. So if anyone tries to give you these platitudes, I want you to give them a scathing look and ask them how they are going to SHOW you with their actions.

Now, some of you might be thinking “this seems sorta harsh?” and you would be wrong. It’s not. If someone makes a mistake, that’s okay. We all make mistakes. But, if we never learn from our mistakes, then we never grow. To grow we need a plan that challenges the status quo, not just wait and assume next time we will be different.

If I take a duck and put it in a box, the duck isn’t going to be a hippo the next time I open the box. If I want a hippo-in-a-box, I gotta take the duck out, put a hippo in it, and stop my duck-boxing urges. This means whether it is you or someone else, we all need to actively work on our growth and the only way is through our actions. So when you’re thinking about how to apologize to someone, make sure you include the actions you will take. Trust me, it makes all the difference!

Get some tips on what to say during your apology. NPR has some good suggestions.

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