Shawne Duperon, founder of The Project Forgive Foundation, spoke to a recent gathering of the Northwest Indiana Chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management last month.
"There's the notion of giving an apology and there's the notion of receiving an apology," Duperon says. "There's distinction between, 'I hear that I really hurt you. I'm so sorry I hurt you' versus 'You're upset. I'm sorry.'"
Duperon also suggests that business leaders learn "how to accept apologies they'll never receive" in order to create peace with people they don't agree with or who they don't like.