Why saying “Sorry” might be a good idea

The word sorry originates from the prehistoric Germanic root word meaning “sore or pained”, the English Dictionary offers us several different meanings a few definitions being “feeling regret, compunction, sympathy, pity”, but there is a study published in the Harvard Business Review which studies the social impact of apologising on your relationships.  The bottom line is over apologising, such as the wonderful English habit of saying “Sorry” when someone walks in to you, rather than being silly and unnecessary actual is proven to be a positive tactic in building trust.  It seems to demonstrate  our empathetic natures and people take that as showing we care about how they feel. 

I have often written here about how much we hate being wrong, and how we are programed from a very young age to always try and prove that we are right (or at least never wrong!)  but this study suggests that being gracious and saying “Sorry” even if we feel it is unnecessary can really work in our favour.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 15th, 2015 at 07:00 and is filed under Communication, Hints, Tips & Techniques. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.