I Must Apologise. And Why This Is A Great Lesson.

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Hey fellow humanitarian leader,

My last email did not arrive on time.

Sorry!

I committed to sending an email every Friday but only did it on Sunday. I have no excuses, not even that I was distracted by real life during R&R.

To make it even worse, it happened right after I finished a small advertising campaign to make more humanitarians aware of the Humanitarian Café. I did it because I really think these emails are helpful to you, and the more readers I have, the more motivated I am to write regularly. For this reason, if you want to help motivate me, you can tell your colleagues how valuable this newsletter is to you.

Do it with the link below:

This email is not just an apology or a request for more readers.

It is, as always, a way to learn something. The above“Sorry” in bold is the very lesson of this week.

We must learn to take responsibility and apologise more often if need be. Our team will be enthusiastic if a leader recognises its mistakes.

It helps create a conducive work environment—a place where everyone can express their opinions and, ultimately, work better. This article calls psychological safety the foundation of innovation, creativity, and candid communication. Don’t read only point #2; the other six are very interesting, too!

I have a personal anecdote about this. Some years ago, I did an end-of-year appraisal. My manager was one of the most brilliant humanitarians I have ever met. We went through the boring part of the exercise, and then she said,” You know what the team and I like about you? You take responsibility for your and your team’s actions and can apologize when something doesn’t work.”

That’s when I realized how vital that behaviour was. And I never stopped.

So, we said that “sorry” can be a magic word.

And it is, but beware of exaggerations. Apologizing too often can be a problem. Sometimes, it is a symptom of social anxiety or other issues. I think I also read about it in Nathaniel Branden's Six Pillars of Self-Esteem. Even if not in that book, it is a classic for increasing personal well-being, so include it in your reading list.

Furthermore, you can also draw lessons from analyzing your apologies.

It is what I just did. You know what? Maybe I will start experimenting on different days to see your preferred days. If you have a specific day in mind that works best for you, please let me know by answering this email.

Apologies→analysis→behaviour change.

To stay on topic, apologies in advance for possible schedule changes!

Thanks for reading this far and sorry if you did not find this useful,
Luca

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