Welcome to the club Ted. It gets much easier by the 3rd or 4th crucifixion.
One thing I've learned from this group is that you can't please everybody. No matter how politely and carefully you might word things, there's always somebody out there who might take it the wrong way, or take things out of context, or ignore half of your comments or something. So I don't even worry about it. If a businessperson cannot handle a blunt or constructive reply without getting personally offended, they've got bigger problems than whatever the topic of conversation happens to be.
I do have to say though, I'm still amazed at how many people view being blunt and being rude as synonymous things. |