Difficult Conversations

Saying no. Handling conflict. Delivering bad news. Regardless of industry, geography, or seniority, we face difficult conversations every day. Handling these conversations effectively is no longer just a good idea. It’s a core competency for effective management. Conflicts that fester dampen productivity, destroy teamwork, impact morale, distort decision-making, short-circuit execution, and damage the bottom line. And the great irony, the higher up in an organization you get, the more difficult the conversations.

Based on our book  Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most (Penguin 2023, 3rd Ed.), we offer a systematic framework for understanding why some of our most important conversations are so hard and tools for handling them with less anxiety and better results.

Key Skills

• Listening – when you least want to and most need to

• Developing accountability

• Disentangling intention from impact

• Managing strong feelings

• Managing identity

• Preparing for a difficult conversation