The 10th anniversary edition of the classic guide to handling life's toughest conversations What is a difficult conversation? Asking for a pay rise, saying 'no' to your boss or spouse, confronting a friend, 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. It teaches us to work through them by understanding that we're not engaging in one dialogue but three: - The "what happened" conversation (what do we believe was said and done) - The "feelings" conversation (the emotional impact on everyone involved) - The "identity" conversation (what does this mean for everyone's opinion of themselves) Use this ground-breaking, step-by-step book to turn your difficult conversations into positive, problem-solving experiences.

The authors of the classic Difficult Conversations teach you how to take criticism productively in Thanks for the Feedback. We get feedback every day of our lives, from friends and family, colleagues, customers, and bosses, teachers, doctors, and strangers. We're assessed, coached, and criticized about our performance, personalities and appearance. We know that feedback is essential for professional development and healthy relationships - but we dread it and even dismiss it. That's because while want to learn and grow, we also want to be accepted just as we are. Thanks for the Feedback is the first book to address this tension head on. In it, the world-renowned team behind the Harvard Negotiation Project offer a simple framework and powerful tools, showing us how to take on life's blizzard of comments and advice with curiosity and grace. 'I'll admit it: Thanks for the Feedback made me uncomfortable. And that's one reason I liked it so much. With keen insight and lots of practical takeaways, it reveals why getting feedback is so hard - and then how we can do better' Daniel H. Pink, author of To Sell Is Human and Drive 'Thanks for the Feedback is a road map to more self-awareness, greater learning, and richer relationships. A tour de force' Adam Grant, Wharton professor and author of Give and Take Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen are Lecturers on Law at Harvard Law School and cofounders of Triad Consulting. Their clients include the White House, Citigroup, Honda, Johnson & Johnson, Time Warner, Unilever, and many others. They are co-authors of the international bestseller Difficult Conversations. Stone lives in Cambridge, MA. Heen lives with her husband and three children in a farmhouse north of Cambridge, MA.

The coauthors of the New York Times-bestselling Difficult Conversations take on the toughest topic of all: how we see ourselves Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen have spent the past fifteen years working with corporations, nonprofits, governments, and families to determine what helps us learn and what gets in our way. In Thanks for the Feedback, they explain why receiving feedback is so crucial yet so challenging, offering a simple framework and powerful tools to help us take on life's blizzard of offhand comments, annual evaluations, and unsolicited input with curiosity and grace. They blend the latest insights from neuroscience and psychology with practical, hard-headed advice. Thanks for the Feedback is destined to become a classic in the fields of leadership, organizational behavior, and education.

Do you find it difficult to:

* Negotiate a pay rise?
* Discuss relationship problems with your partner?
* Ask an awkward favour?
* Confront a neighbour or friend?

Much as we try and avoid them, difficult conversations are part of life. And we often handle them badly. This ground-breaking book will give you the know-how to tackle even the most challenging conversations:

* Know when to speak - and when to listen
* Stop laying blame and start being positive
* The role of feelings: yours and theirs
* Say what you mean - don't make others guess
* Understand what's not being said as well as what is
* Transform a battle into a learning conversation

Follow this practical step-by-step method and your conversations will be transformed into productive, problem-solving experiences.