Dear Crucial Skills, With the recent H1N1 scare, I would appreciate any advice on approaching colleagues in a healthcare institution—usually managers and MDs—to stay home when they are sick rather than feel obligated to come to work. I would also appreciate any advice on motivating them to get immunized against the flu without having to …
Dear Crucial Skills, Over the past six months, I have had several confrontations with a coworker. I admit the reasons for the confrontations are mostly my fault. However, instead of approaching me and handling these situations with me, my coworker constantly complains about me to our boss. I am frustrated that my coworker cannot talk …
Dear Crucial Skills, As a result of recent layoffs at our company, there is a lot of distrust between our management team and senior leadership. We’ve all been through Crucial Conversations Training. How can I use crucial conversations skills to rebuild trust and get the two groups talking again? Two Groups Talking Dear Two Groups, …
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Al Switzler is author of three bestselling books, Influencer, Crucial Conversations, and Crucial Confrontations. READ MORE During the month of July, we will be running “best of” content from the authors. The following article first appeared on August 15, 2007. Dear Crucial Skills, My son asked my brother for a big, non-monetary …
Dear Crucial Skills, I just read Crucial Accountability and realized the issue I need to confront someone about has already happened enough times to affect our relationship, but I have not had the earlier confrontations regarding content and pattern. How do I begin the confrontation at the stage where the issue is now affecting the …
Dear Crucial Skills, I struggle with showing my emotions when I’m confronted with a tense conversation or situation. What’s worse is that once I start to get emotional, I get mad at myself, and that only makes me more emotional and makes my eyes well up. After ten years of corporate experience, I still struggle …
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Al Switzler is coauthor of four New York Times bestsellers, Change Anything, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer. READ MORE Dear Crucial Skills, Last year a representative from your company conducted a training in Florida on Crucial Conversations. As part of our take away we received a pack of 4×4 flash cards. …
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Al Switzler is coauthor of four New York Times bestsellers, Change Anything, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer. READ MORE Dear Crucial Skills, At our company, management has the option of being flexible with certain time-off guidelines. Other bosses are quite flexible, while my boss is very restrictive. I also think she …
Dear Crucial Skills, I work in the HR department for a consulting company. I have worked there for almost eight months and I’ve noticed an ongoing issue with communication—or the lack thereof. On a weekly basis, I discover problems that could have been easily prevented with proper communication. How do I ask my managers to …
Dear Crucial Skills, When reading the concerns of “Tired of the Attitude” and your recommendations to her, I couldn’t help but think of the many times I have tried to follow the recommendations given in the Crucial Conversations literature—begin with the facts, make it safe, etc.—and I find myself in the middle of a defensive …
