One of my all-time favorite apologies came from the CEO of a company who, after reading a long list of grievances recited by an offended customer, started his letter with, “Clearly, we screwed up.”

No excuses. No whining. No defensiveness. Just a clear acknowledgment that the company made a mistake, with the letter apologizing for it and taking corrective action.

The apology was made directly to the offended party who, as I recall, shared it with others and eventually the mea culpa made its way onto a list of excellent apology letters.

I have certainly made my share of mistakes, and when I make one I try to go directly to the offended individual(s) to apologize and ask forgiveness. I’ve had occasion to do this as recently as a few days ago.

• We can’t control whether people will believe us or forgive us, but we can and should acknowledge our mistake with the offended party. It’s the right thing to do.

Organizations that make mistakes and are quick to apologize will find that most people are quick to forgive. Of course the apology must be sincere to really be effective. If you’ve made a mistake, though, you should want to do what you can to make things right with the offended individual(s) as soon as possible.

Digging in and refusing to acknowledge a mistake generally makes matters much worse, and an insincere apology is usually pretty easy to detect and counterproductive.

• One of my early career mentors once gave me this sage advice: “Never deny the obvious.”

It’s amazing, though, how many companies and individuals do that very thing. If it’s obvious that you, your agency or client has made a mistake, acknowledge it, take responsibility, ask forgiveness and then move on.