My goal in writing that was to illustrate the opposite of the original. The correct approach is probably somewhere in the middle. > Do we really need to soften

My goal in writing that was to illustrate the opposite of the original. The correct approach is probably somewhere in the middle. > Do we really need to soften everything? It sounds like you're trying to create a strawman. No, we needn't soften everything. But we should probably soften some things. One could just as well ask, do we really need to be brusque 100% of the time? > Are our egos so fragile that we can't take a little bluntness Again, I'm not talking about "a little" -- reading between the lines, I can't help but wonder if the boss is like this all the time, if his reign is so brittle that he can't suffer a dash of kindness even in the memo that provides his first impression to new employees. One of the hardest parts of leadership is knowing when to be harsh and when to let up.