British Rail Company Apologies

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Great Western Railway is tripping over itself apologizing for thousands of canceled and late trains. Apologies by British train organizations are so common that a web designer created a site, https://www.sorryfortheinconvenience.co.uk, to chronicle statements, now totaling more than 420,000.

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A look at the railway’s Twitter feed shows two failures but no apology. Maybe the organization is catching on: over-apologizing isn’t a good strategy. At some point, customers just want problems fixed.

Discussion:

  • How can a leader know when the organization is apologizing too much?

  • Take a look at the GWR Twitter feed. How would you advise the organization to improve its communications?

  • What leadership character dimensions is GWR demonstrating and failing to demonstrate with its apologies?