Dear Crucial Skills, How can I nudge my partner to start using some GTD® skills? Signed,Losing Patience Dear Losing Patience, Consider what nudging looks like in practice. To verbally nudge someone is to volley hints or suggestions but without directly addressing the issue or revealing how much you care about it. A nudge may get …

I’ve heard a lot of people accuse teachers of “quiet quitting.” Teachers typically put in many hours and their own dollars to give students the best possible education. But recently, due to low pay, many have said they will limit their work to the classroom only. How can you hold teachers accountable for quietly quitting when, really, the norm has been to work unpaid hours?

I’ve had trouble with employees being vigilant to hold peers accountable, but in a way that isn’t very kind. How do you encourage peer accountability and ensure it doesn’t end up as a form of bullying?

My assistant used $700 for a hotel room. I had never given him a spending limit, but I didn’t think he would spend $700. Now I need to tell him he won’t get reimbursed for that because it was way too much. How do I tell him? Help!

I work with a senior employee who is passive-aggressive, interrupts the boss, pontificates, challenges direction he does not agree with, and diminishes team morale. I’d like to talk with him about this, but not sure how to begin or what to say. Can you help?

How do you handle a situation with someone who refuses to quit a bad behavior? I have spoken with them about it several times and nothing has changed.

How do you know whether to let someone go? My spouse and I own a startup that we are funding ourselves. We hired a sales rep last year and they’ve made one sale so far, not nearly enough to sustain their role. I am full of self-doubt about what to do. Is it our product? Collateral? Their skills? Tell me what I can do.

I have a question about accountability conversations and what to value more. Should I allow the person I want to hold accountable to save face by accepting their version of what happened, as long as I am confident that the misstep will not happen again, or should I push until they acknowledge and admit that they did wrong?

I often find myself in audience settings—such as a theater, concert, class or worship service—with chatty neighbors whose whispered (or loud) conversations disturb the peace of everyone around them.

One of my employees keeps complaining about her high workload. I have done everything I can to reduce her workload—hired additional staff, cut back her projects, and so on. Despite all this, she still logs overtime hours. She must give 120% when 80% would be sufficient.