Hi Ron,

> I think that when we're tempted to be "brutally honest" we are
> likely responding to some deep emotion, be it anger, pain,
> fear, some kind of disrespect. A component of our motivation
> /is/ to hurt.

I had a boss once who was proud of his "brutal honesty."  I am 
certain that hurting others was not a component of his 
motivation.  He saw the hurt as an unfortunate side effect, but 
one that was willing to accept, and one that was unavoidable if 
he was to speak honestly.

In general, I didn't see his honesty as being especially brutal, 
so maybe in the end he wasn't the kind of guy we're talking about.

I think there's a difference between being brutally honest and 
saying something that you predict someone might feel bad about. 
I'm not sure how to express the difference.  Maybe part of the 
difference is being willing to stay in the conversation until we 
can make something good out of the situation.

Dale

-- 
Dale Emery, Consultant
Collaborative Leadership for Software People
Web:    http://www.dhemery.com
Weblog: http://www.dhemery.com/cwd

The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every 
object only the traits which favor that theory. --Thomas Jefferson



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