Brag about your friends when they’re not around. It gets back to them eventually, and it lands differently.

Praise given behind someone’s back has no possible motive attached, which is exactly what makes it land when it eventually reaches them. Everything said to a person’s face carries a small question mark about whether you meant it. Something repeated back by a third party carries none. You also stop being the kind of person whose name in a conversation makes people brace.

Say one genuinely good thing about a friend this week in a room they are not in. Be specific rather than general. It travels on its own and you never have to mention it.