News & Tips

How to Have the Difficult Conversations Most Leaders Hate

It wasn’t my first difficult conversation as a manager, but it was one of the toughest. At the time, I was working as a consultant on a program for a large, household-name company. The team I led consisted of project managers who oversaw lots of data specialists and other technical types, all...

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Don’t Soften Feedback

When I talk about balancing being directive and empowering as a leader, the distinction between being kind and being nice often comes up. Sometimes, folks who have to deliver hard-to-hear feedback soften it to the point where their teammate doesn’t clearly understand what they should do next. This...

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