The apologizer is faced with several decisions when formulating an apology. Effective apologies are as unique as the offenses that inspire them, but they all have, in varying degrees, the following five dimensions:
- Recognition
- Responsibility
- Remorse
- Restitution
- Repetition
Effective apologies include each of these dimensions, and you will easily remember them if you think of the five Rs. I don’t mean to imply that every apology needs an explicit reference to all five dimensions. But the higher the stakes, the more significant the offense, and the more formal the occasion, the more I recommend ...
