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Why an Apology Matters

“Round up the usual suspects.” That line from the beloved movie Casablanca is sometimes the strategy managers rely on to deal with difficult employees. It’s easy to assume they are always at fault when something goes wrong because they are often at fault. Sometimes you will err, though, and when you do, apologize.

In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, management guru Stephen Covey labels such mistakes as “withdrawals from the Emotional Bank Account.” They can often be reversed with a simple apology.

“When we make withdrawals from the Emotional Bank Account, we need to apologize and we need to do it sincerely,” he writes, “Great deposits come in the sincere words: ‘I was wrong….’”

Too many managers subscribe to the notion that you should never apologize, especially to a problem employee. They mistakenly believe it makes them look weak.

In fact, the opposite is true. It takes great courage. If you don’t muster that courage, you create an even bigger problem for yourself. You may undercut the self-esteem of the employee who was trying to improve. He may simply ask himself, “What’s the use?”