Speaking with honesty and consideration
This is different from caring what others think of us. We do not modify our words so that people will like us; we consider our words so that we don’t hurt others. We don’t need to care what others think of us, but we do need to care what others think. We need to know our audience so that we are able to convey what we want to say in a way that people will understand and without hurting them.
Of course, sometimes there is no way to word something without our message hurting the hearer. The doctor has to tell the family of a patient if they have died. There’s no way around that. And naturally, they will be hurt. But in other cases, there are ways to say something that will be hurtful and ways to say it that are not.
Speaking the truth is part of being true to ourselves, being authentic. But our authenticity needs to be expressed while considering others.