Tell the truth or show empathy
Telling the truth is powerful. It’s also one of the hardest things to do if you’re an empathetic person. Most of us who are capable of empathy and not psychopaths don’t like making people feel bad, sad, or angry. But it isn’t always possible to make people feel good. Sometimes as part of my job I need to make someone feel bad about their strategy, their product, their approach, their ideas, their website. The way I approach this is to stand in the space of truth. Being committed to telling the truth means you’re not settling for an emotional debate between right …