Crucial Conversations
Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Violated Expectations, and Bad Behavior
by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler
Disappointing Results at Work?
The Guys explore one of the toughest issues – dealing with confrontations in the workplace. No, it isn’t about breaking up fights, but it can result in one if not handled properly in some cases. Most of us avoid conflict at all costs, so confronting employees who aren’t meeting up to standards is certainly not an enjoyable process. Crucial Confrontations – Tools for Resolving
How do good leaders create conversations to address work issues? The first few seconds of the interaction sets the tone for everything that follows.
What do you do when someone disappoints you? For some people, the response is anger. They cut people off, overstate arguments, attack ideas, employ harsh debating tactics, and eventually resort to insults and threats.
Surely, there’s a better way. And there is. We’ll explore how to step up and master crucial confrontations. But first, let’s start with a definition.
What does the term crucial confrontation mean? To confront means to hold someone accountable for disappointing you, 
face-to-face.
It doesn’t have to be abrasive. In fact, when confrontations are handled correctly, both parties talk openly and honestly. Both are candid and respectful. As a result, problems are resolved and the relationship benefits. But crucial confrontation skills offer the best chance to succeed, regardless of the topic, person, or circumstance.
The Guys tiptoe through the tulips of tense moments… pursed and tight. Well, if you know The Guys, they are a bit fast and loose. In order to loosen things up they cover the essential processes and techniques for having crucial conversations, from the authors’ point of view and from their own experience. Crucial confrontations succeed or fail because of the words people choose, and the way people deliver them.
Before you confront someone, you have to make sure that you are confronting the right problem.
The ability to reduce an infraction to its bare essence takes patience, a sense of proportion, and precision. You’ll have to listen in or download Ray’s Crib notes below in order to get the details of what the process is and how it works.
