Say the hard thing kindly. Brave and cruel aren’t the same thing.

Bluntness gets mistaken for honesty, and the sting gets treated as proof that something true was said. They are unrelated. The hardness of a hard thing lives in the content, and how it lands is a delivery decision you are making whether you notice or not. Choosing the kind version is more work, because you have to think about the person while thinking about the truth.

Say the same true sentence twice in your head, once bluntly and once with care, then use the second one. Nothing true gets lost in that translation.