Dear Crucial Skills, Recently our company moved some services “offshore” BUT (proudly) we have been able to retain the jobs of all current employees. Unfortunately, there is one employee who appears extremely negative about this situation and has been sending “negative” e-mails about it. We want this attitude and negativity to stop because it seems …
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 Kerry Patterson is coauthor of four bestselling books, Change Anything, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer. READ MORE Dear Crucial Skills, What does a manager do when a job has outgrown the employee? In this age of rapid growth, often the job a person was hired to do is no longer …
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 …
Dear Joseph, We have a secretary to a director who is a control freak. She comes across as very efficient to management, but she won’t allow the rest of us to do our jobs without meddling. This slows me and others down a lot. Those of us who have attempted to confront her about this …
Dear Crucial Skills, In my organization, I keep hearing that senior management does not empower middle management and that middle management does not empower the front line workers. How can Crucial Conversations help every level feel more empowered? Signed, Seeking Power Dear Seeking Power, When the empowerment movement became popular in the mid 80s, the …
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Joseph Grenny is coauthor of four bestselling books, Change Anything, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer. READ MORE Dear Crucial Skills, My current job is being eliminated, and unless I find another position in the company, I could be facing a layoff after twenty-two years with the company. The job I would …
Dear Crucial Skills, What do you recommend as a first step when an irate employee comes into a supervisor/manager’s office and begins to shout out a complaint and demand immediate action? Signed, Under Attack Dear Under Attack, When I was asked if I’d be willing to answer a new question that had come in, I …
Dear Crucial Skills, What do you do when someone violates an agreed upon decision-making process? Four other supervisors and I recently made a process improvement decision. Two weeks later one of my peer supervisors called a meeting that I assumed was a chance to review progress on implementing these decisions. I sent one of my …
