Gracious recoveries after social spills

What do you do when you get mail from an acquaintance and your last name is misspelled?

Or even worse if you get post that constantly has that spelling mistake even though you have made it clear already to that individual how your name is supposed to be spelled.

What do you do without causing embarrassment? Gracious recoveries are the two magic words for this and many other instances.

Below are several helpful suggestions that might be called upon to deal with those embarrassing moments.

 Picture this, you are in a fine dining restaurant invited to have dinner with a few friends. During the meal you accidentally squirt gravy on the person sitting next to you. In this scenario immediately offer your napkin.

 How about, inquiring after someone’s spouse and learning that they are no longer married? Well, I can add that it was asked by someone who was merely an acquaintance rather than a close friend.

In this case offer a brief but sincere apology and do remember that you are NOT licensed to ask why they split up.

 What if you were attending this dinner party and happen to bump into someone wearing the same dress as you?

The only thing to do is to smile and if you are brave enough to approach the person – compliment her on her wardrobe.

 My designer friend who now resides in New York had the most unforgettable experience in his life.

He was going to treat his friend to a birthday lunch celebration only to find out that the eating establishment only accepted cash. He only had $15 in his wallet; what do you think he did?

He definitely did not ask for some money from his friend as it would be such an embarrassment on his part considering that he was supposedly treating her.

He asked the restaurant if they could accept his card, this one time, or allow him to go to the nearest ATM machine to withdraw money.

What do you think?

Remembering his story makes me shout BRAVO!

 Let’s say you were talking to the president of a multi-national company and his flies are open.

There are two things you can do here; first, determine your relationship with this person and if you are comfortable and close to that person you can tell him/her that his/her fly is open.

Another would be to wait for another person to tell him about it and hope that a good Samaritan takes notice of it soon.

 Now let me share with you something that happened to me a few years ago.

My daughter was playing in a football game and being the mother I was there to watch and look after her and her team (I would always bring some refreshing drinks for the girls or food to munch on at half-time).

One of the girls from the other team, who happens to be the daughter of my editor-in-chief for this fashion and beauty magazine which I use to write articles for, accidentally comes sliding into me and kicks me on my shin.

What did I do?

Smiled and grabbed myself a bag of ice!