It Always Begins With the HeartExemplo

A Humble Heart

Over the last few days, I have had to deal with a very trying situation with my bank. Simple instructions weren’t followed and that caused a lot of confusion including delayed payments.

I was hugely frustrated and on the verge of going through the tedious task of changing my bank when a very courteous young bank officer took the trouble to meet me. All he did was apologise. No fancy jargon, no long-drawn explanations. He just said a simple, ‘Sorry, we messed up’. It surprised me as well when this simple gesture actually calmed me down. I was willing to accept the mistake and move on.

Recent research published in a few top management journals postulates that the brand value of an organisation actually goes up, if, after a goof-up, they are able to admit it, and come out with a sincere apology to their customers. Trust me, people are smart enough to gauge if it’s actually sincere. You might recollect that we have seen this happen quite often. Most recently a leading cell phone manufacturer publicly apologised for a gross defect in their manufacturing. The apology simply said ‘We fell short of our promise − for this, we are truly sorry,’ And surprise, surprise, the sales of their next model was strong.

If this is true of brands and large organisations, why can’t it work with you and me? What does it take to humble ourselves and apologise? Not just to our superiors, or people above us − that’s the easy part − but to people who report to us, to our teams, to our colleagues? Are we worried that our ‘brand value’ will diminish? As someone who has tried it, I can assure you today that it won’t. It, in fact, gives people around you an opportunity to be vulnerable as well, to admit when they’ve made a mistake and not to cover up.

Most importantly, we do it in obedience to His word. Humble yourself, He says in I Pet 5:6. It’s counter-intuitive to the way the world works. But, if, with humility, we are willing to admit it when we are wrong, He will exalt us.

Father, give me a heart of humility to sincerely apologise when I am wrong. Amen