Sheila Heen, Founder

Sheila Heen is a Founder of Triad Consulting, a Professor of Practice at Harvard Law School, and serves as a Deputy Director of the Harvard Negotiation Project, where she has been developing negotiation theory and practice since 1995.

Sheila’s corporate clients have included Pixar, Hugo Boss, the NBA, the Federal Reserve Bank, Ford, Novartis, Converse, American Express, and numerous family businesses. She often works with executive teams, helping them to work through conflict, repair working relationships and make sound decisions together. In the public sector she has also provided training for the New England Organ Bank, the Singapore Supreme Court, the Obama White House and theologians struggling with disagreement over the nature of truth and God.

Sheila specializes in particularly difficult negotiations – where emotions run high and relationships are strained. She is also a co-author of two New York Times bestsellers: Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most (with Douglas Stone and Bruce Patton, 3rd Ed. Penguin 2023) and Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well (Even When It’s Off-Base, Unfair, Poorly Delivered, and Frankly, You’re Not in the Mood) (with Douglas Stone, Viking/Penguin 2014). She has written for the Harvard Business Review and for the New York Times as a guest expert and as a Modern Love columnist.

Sheila is a frequent media guest and has appeared on shows as diverse as Oprah, NPR, Fox News, and CNBC’s Power Lunch. She can be heard on podcast episodes of Shane Parrish’s Knowledge Project, Adam Grant’s WorkLife, Hidden Brain, and The Tim Ferriss Show. She has spoken at the Global Leadership Summit, the Nordic Business Forum, at The Smithsonian, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and the U.S. Air Force Academy. She got to fly along on a training mission in an F-16 while working with the Air Force to improve feedback to pilots in training.

Sheila is a graduate of Occidental College and Harvard Law School. She is schooled in negotiation daily by her three children.