Dear Emily, I lead a support group for single/widowed/divorced individuals for people aged forty to eighty. Meetings are informal and focused on sharing, so an agenda is not usually necessary. However, lately we have had a problem with sidebar conversations. One member in particular, who has little or nothing to say when it is her …
Dear Crucial Skills, Over the past year, my wife has developed an unhealthy pattern of caring less and less about her physical appearance and is now considerably overweight. Whenever I try to discuss the potential impact on her quality of life, she becomes very defensive and says, “You don’t love me anymore.” I counter and …
Have Dear Crucial Skills, I have a team of three individuals. They are all hard workers and have been with the company for a long time. I have been their manager for almost five years now. Over the last year, we have gone through some organizational changes that have made them feel, as they have …
Dear Crucial Skills, My brother has a small IT business and usually employs four to five people at a time. He recently employed a twenty-year-old college student we’ll call Mark. Because of his girlfriend’s unexpected pregnancy, Mark had to stop studying and finds himself raising a family. His family situation is complex; he commutes about …
Dear Crucial Skills, How do you respond to work colleagues who complain that management never asks our opinion? I agree it’s good to get insight from management on how and why things are the way they are. But my coworkers seem to forget there are some things administration just can’t get everyone’s viewpoint on—because a …
We’re excited to announce that Emily Hoffman, a Senior Master Trainer as well as VitalSmarts’ VP of Development & Delivery, will become a regular contributor to the Crucial Skills Newsletter. Dear Crucial Skills, A friend of mine works in a small office. She has a new coworker who sits on the other side of her …
The U.S. Women’s Ski Jump team made their Olympic debut in the 2014 Socchi Games. While they did not medal (the three members of the team placed 10th, 15th, and 21st), they had thousands of fans cheering them on, including the youngest member of the U.S. Women’s Ski team—twelve-year-old Zia Terry. Two years ago at …
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Emily Hoffman is a Master Trainer and Senior Director of Client Training and Employee Development at VitalSmarts. READ MORE How do you hold a crucial conversation via e-mail? A crucial conversation is best handled face-to-face. No exceptions. The best among us use e-mail and voice mail to schedule and follow up on …
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Emily Hoffman is a Master Trainer and Senior Director of Client Training and Employee Development at VitalSmarts. READ MORE In the Style Under Stress assessment, question 32: “I find myself in situations where people get their feelings hurt because they thought they would have more of a say in final decisions than …
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Emily Hoffman is a Master Trainer and Senior Director of Client Training and Employee Development at VitalSmarts. READ MORE Aren’t Crucial Conversations skills just good negotiation tactics packaged in a slightly different way? Good question. I think the answer depends on how you are thinking about negotiating. If by negotiating you mean …
