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, In our school we have a teacher who is a bully. Others are afraid to confront her and the team atmosphere has suffered as a result. Word has now …

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ron McMillan is coauthor of four New York Times bestsellers, Change Anything, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer. READ MORE Dear Crucial Skills, How do I have a crucial conversation with people who have very low self esteems? I work in a fast-paced office, full of nurses, all of whom have been …

Dear Crucial Skills, I understand the importance of “creating safety” for the other party in a crucial conversation, but I find myself stuck most of the time because I’m the one who feels unsafe. If I’m the one who needs to initiate a crucial conversation, is there a way to create safety for myself as …

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, “Consensus” is just a buzzword in our organization. We talk about making consensus decisions, but what really happens is that after everyone has shared input to the pool of …

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, I have a coworker who is extremely overwhelmed by her workload. However, she is offered help periodically and always seems to find a reason why that help won’t work. …

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kerry Patterson is coauthor of four New York Times bestsellers, Change Anything, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer. READ MORE Dear Crucial Skills, Any advice for those of us caught in the role of “moderator” (willing or not) of a crucial conversation? Both as a manager of a team of high performing …

Dear Crucial Skills, Yesterday I led a discussion on crucial conversations with my ten-member corporate and public affairs team. When we examined everyone’s “Style Under Stress,” eight out of ten of my teammates discovered they go to silence. Do these results indicate a big concern for us because there is not an equal distribution of …

Dear Crucial Skills, I work in a situation where we have a reputation for being ‘nice’ to employees and not having crucial conversations when needed. This leads to inconsistent messages, inconsistent productivity and our missing of several key goals. Which do you think would be better to try first; a roll out of Crucial Conversations …

Dear Crucial Skills, I often run into a brick wall when trying to have a crucial conversation with workaholics. It seems as if they will work with you only if it increases their power or they can exercise control over you. What can I do to get some cooperation? Signed, Frustrated coworker Dear Frustrated, Thank …

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kerry Patterson is coauthor of four New York Times bestsellers, Change Anything, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer. READ MORE Dear Crucial Skills, After initiating a crucial conversation effort, how do you evaluate outcome of the effort? What objective outcome assessment do you utilize? Signed, Curious Dear Curious, Over the years, we’ve …