What to listen to or read, in what order, for the situation you’re facing.
Win support for a recommendation, a presentation or a message.
You want people to approve a project, change a process, or try a different approach. This guide helps you understand their concerns, explain your recommendation, and work toward an agreement they can act on.
A decision, a budget, or your reputation depends on one presentation. This guide helps you decide what the audience needs, build a clear argument, rehearse it, and handle the room on the day.
You need a reply, a decision, or an action, and your message will be one of many your reader sees today. This guide helps you decide what you want, write it so it is understood in seconds, and send it in a state that reflects well on you.
Say no, challenge a decision, or give feedback that lands.
You have been asked for something you cannot do, or cannot do well, on top of everything else. This guide helps you understand the request, give an honest answer, and offer an alternative your manager can accept.
The group is about to commit to something you believe is a mistake. This guide helps you work out your concern, raise it at the right moment, test it with the others, and accept the outcome professionally.
A colleague's work or behavior is causing a problem, and you are not their manager. This guide helps you decide what is worth raising, say it well, hear their side, and leave the next step with them.
Meetings that decide, and difficult or aggressive people.
You have called people together and you need them to leave having decided something. This guide helps you prepare, open well, keep the discussion productive, and close with a decision everyone understands.
Someone you work with regularly irritates you, slows you down, or makes the work harder than it needs to be. This guide helps you understand what is going on, decide what to let go, raise what matters, and get help if nothing changes.
Someone is raising their voice, making demands, or attacking you personally. This guide helps you read the situation, hold a boundary, find the real problem, and end the exchange if it cannot continue.
Bad news, a serious mistake, or blame you don’t deserve.
A project has slipped, a cost has risen, or a promised result is in doubt. This guide helps you raise it early, explain it plainly, and leave the conversation with an agreed response.
You made an error that cost other people time, money, or trust. This guide helps you disclose it, apologize in a way that means something, listen to those affected, and put it right.
Someone has just held you responsible, in front of others, for something that was not your doing. This guide helps you stay calm, correct the record, and move the room back to solving the problem.
Starting a job, asking for more, and leaving well.
You are joining a new team, and the first weeks will shape how people see you for a long time. This guide helps you arrive well, learn before you act, build working relationships, and show you can be relied on.
You believe your work has outgrown your title or your pay. This guide helps you build the case, make the request clearly, learn what the answer depends on, and negotiate a concrete next step.
You have decided to leave. This guide helps you be sure of the decision, tell your manager well, hand over your work in good order, and keep the relationships you built.