How to say “that I am not against/countering your opinion” to the boss politely?

Question

I have an issue with a situation that happens a lot of the time. When I converse with my boss, he sometimes misunderstands some point in the discussion and talks from that point of view. However if I want to correct him, he mistakes my intention and thinks that I am confronting, countering or against his opinion.

In that situation, what is the right way to politely address the issue and stress the importance of my point. Currently, I am using the following sentence before making my point:

I am not against your point or countering your idea

However even with this I could not make him listen to me. Instead, it makes the situation worse.

I doubt my language, probably the sentence and the way I putting it forward is not good enough to convince higher officials.

Is there any alternate that I could do, which would be polite and at the same time effective to make him listen as well?

Answer 1

Instead of stating what you are not doing, state what you are doing.

I think we are on the same page ...

Goes along well with stating you agree with him.

Stating that you are not contradicting him is a rather convolute way to express "I agree with you" and can surely take longer to be understood.

Answer 2

You could say many other things, but it may well be that this particular phrase isn't the issue, but what you say after it.

If you expressly tell the boss that you're agreeing with him, then continue reiterating your original point (which he clearly thinks isn't agreeing with him), then that will likely cause frustration whatever phrase you use.

Instead, I'd focus on apologising for the misunderstanding, and clarify what you meant to say instead:

Apologies, I know I said x but that wasn't exactly what I meant! What I meant was...

Alternatively, if what the boss says is correct, and was what you meant to say, then you can just agree with him without introducing a needless correction!