Sheila Heen Boeken

The bestselling authors of the classic Difficult Conversations guide us on transforming evaluations, advice, criticisms, and coaching into opportunities for productive listening and learning. We encounter feedback from various sources—bosses, colleagues, family, and friends—but often dread or dismiss it. This reluctance stems from a conflict between our desire to grow and our need for acceptance as we are. The authors tackle this tension, emphasizing the importance of feedback while acknowledging its challenges. They present a framework to navigate the constant influx of comments, evaluations, and unsolicited advice with curiosity and grace. While the business world invests heavily in teaching effective feedback delivery, Stone and Heen argue for a shift in focus toward educating receivers in both professional and personal contexts. Drawing on a decade of experience with businesses, nonprofits, governments, and families, they explore what fosters learning and what hinders it. With humor and clarity, they combine insights from neuroscience and psychology with practical advice, positioning their work as a future classic in leadership, organizational behavior, and education.

What is a difficult conversation? Asking for a pay rise, saying 'no' to your boss or spouse, confronting a friend or neighbour, asking a difficult favour, apologizing. We all have conversations that we dread and find unpleasant. But can we develop the skills to make such situations less stressful and more productive? Based on fifteen years of research and consultations with thousands of people, DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS pinpoints what works. Use this ground-breaking, step-by-step book to turnyour difficult conversations into positive, problem-solving experiences.