We all feel challenged at one time or another by colleagues, managers, clients, or customers. When we don't take into account differences in expectations, communication styles, and priorities, we can set our relationships up to be plagued by hurt feelings and chronic frustration. In her book, Make Difficult People Disappear: How to Deal with Stressful Behavior and Eliminate
Nobody likes giving negative feedback or delivering potentially disappointing news to a direct report. And while many individual contributors know that they actually need negative feedback to get better at their jobs, they typically don't relish the idea of finding out that they're falling short of expectations. Nevertheless, negative feedback-- when delivered carefully and thoughtfully-- can help individuals and teams course correct,
You've spent hours, days, and weeks making sure that you have all of the data, facts and statistics exactly right for your big presentation to the boss, and two minutes into your remarks, she says, "Let's skip to the end. What's the bottom line here?" You're in a meeting where your colleague is animatedly sharing his bold new approach
