Dear Crucial Skills, I’m a partner in a small law firm in a small town. I’m about to have a Crucial Conversation with a fairly new secretary who is doing a lot of personal stuff on ‘company’ time. Two problems: 1) the secretary who shared her concerns with me about this new secretary doesn’t want …
Dear Crucial Skills, My wife asked a friend of ours to help her with a home improvement project. Since then there have been other similar types of projects and he is now coming over to the house on a regular basis. In some worrisome ways their friendship seems too close. I have not found them …
Visit the Crucial Skills blog to read Joseph Grenny’s answer to this question: How can your materials help a mother of a ten-year-old respond appropriately when her child speaks disrespectfully?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Joseph Grenny is coauthor of four New York Times bestsellers, Change Anything, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer. READ MORE Dear Crucial Skills, Our city has been struggling with a diversity initiative, and we’ve been going through the Crucial Conversations training to help address issues that keep our employees from working together …
Dear Crucial Skills, One late Friday afternoon while traveling on a commercial airline carrier that was completely packed (all seats sold—and I do mean all), I had the misfortune of getting a center seat. If this were not bad enough, it was summertime (and of course uncomfortably warm). The person seated immediately to my right …
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Joseph Grenny is coauthor of four New York Times bestsellers, Change Anything, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer. READ MORE Dear Crucial Skills, My life partner recently got into trouble with the law. He has been charged, and is currently awaiting trial. Luckily, he doesn’t have to await trial behind bars. The …
Dear Crucial Skills, How do I ask my former sister-in-law for money that she owes me? My former sister-in-law is a high powered attorney in NY. Her son and my son are the same age and are good friends. I suggested to her they attend camp together for the summer and she asked that I …
Dear Crucial Skills, Any pointers on a conversation that should have happened many years ago? I’m interested in asking my mother why she was so angry when we (the children) were young. When I say angry, I do mean physically abusive. I have done a lot of personal work and am almost (honestly, almost) past …
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Joseph Grenny is coauthor of four bestselling books, Change Anything, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer. READ MORE Dear Crucial Skills, I just found out that another manager in the same profession but with less qualifications and a smaller job is making $14,000 more than I am. If I confront my boss, …
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Joseph Grenny is coauthor of four bestselling books, Change Anything, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer. READ MORE Dear Crucial Skills, How do I approach someone who seems to think I’m an idiot? I am the Director of Finance in my organization. I am a CPA. One of my functions is to …
