There are no good excuses, but there are good reasons.
Why were you late? Why didn’t you get back to your caller? Why didn’t you go home for Christmas? It’s tempting to look for excuses. It’s tempting to find a believable story or twist of the facts that will allow you to “get away” with something. But, of course we never really “get away” with anything. People usually can smell an excuse, and that kind of pretense undermines trust.
The irony is, often we look for excuses when we have very valid reasons for our choices. You may have been late because you were enjoying watching the sun set and you made a choice. You may not have returned a call because you needed to focus to get a project done and were afraid if you returned the call, you’d get so involved in the conversation you’d lose your focus. You may not have gone home for Christmas because you’d rather see your family at a less hectic time.
There really are no good excuses, but there are really good reasons. There are some bad reasons, too, but hey – don’t decide a reason isn’t good enough because someone else might not like your choice. They weren’t there! They didn’t see how really special that sunset was. You were, and you did, and you made a choice. Own your choices.
Character-based Communicators are honest. That’s part of why people trust what they say. And that’s part of why they are so effective.
It’s nice to know when someone is not available. But it’s more useful to know when someone is. Roger responded to Joe’s email with a question, and then proceeded to tell him the hours he would not be available to answer the phone.