Difficult Leadership

This book gives you the specific scripts to improve even the most difficult personalities!

Mission matters. People matter. Leadership rarely grants the luxury of caring deeply about only one. Leadership often presents itself as a tension. Standards matter. Accountability matters. Results matter. Yet people matter too. So what happens when those responsibilities collide? In Mission First, People Always, Paul J. Ferguson reflects on one of leadership’s oldest and most difficult tensions: how leaders balance purpose and people when neither responsibility can simply be ignored. Drawing from decades of leadership experience across military service, organizational transformation, ...

If you’ve ever felt invisible in a room, struggled to keep a conversation going, or watched others effortlessly connect while you felt awkward, How to Talk to People in a Way That Works is for you. This book reveals why some people are remembered, why some speak with confidence, and why others feel stuck. You’ll find ways to communicate effectively, listen better, and build authentic connections without force. Charisma isn’t a performance—it’s a frequency. Some people shift the energy in a room naturally, while others try harder and still feel unnoticed. This book shows you the ...

The 10th-anniversary edition of the New York Times business bestseller-now updated with "Answers to Ten Questions People Ask" We attempt or avoid difficult conversations every day-whether dealing with an underperforming employee, disagreeing with a spouse, or negotiating with a client. From the...

Empathy is not soft leadership. Many leaders want to care about people without becoming unclear, avoidant, or inconsistent. They want to support their teams without lowering standards, delaying hard conversations, or carrying everyone’s emotional weight. But empathy is often misunderstood. It gets confused with agreement. Accommodation. Endless availability. Consensus. Avoiding discomfort. Protecting people from every hard truth. That is not leadership. In Empathy Is Not Soft Leadership, Artemis Ellis reframes empathy as a disciplined leadership practice built on clarity, accountability, ...

Read by the authors. An essential guide to master any workplace conflict with confidence and ease, have less drama, better results, and thrive at work. In many workplaces today, workplace conflict is an escalating issue. The shift to remote work and hybrid teams has left many people longing for...

The 10th anniversary audio edition of the million-copy bestseller that has revolutionized coaching -- with brand new content. The Coaching Habit “un-weirded” coaching and made it practical and accessible to everyone. Ten years on, and that skill has never been more relevant. It’s not just...

This book provides tips and strategies to help school leaders improve, neutralize, or eliminate resistant and negative teachers. Learn how to handle staff members who gossip in the teacher's lounge, consistently say "it won't work" when any new idea is suggested, send an excessive number of...

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...

This book is for anyone who has experienced a difficult person at work. Revealing the nine different types of difficult people, there's a quick quiz so you can work out the personality type you're dealing with, and how to communicate with them effectively.

A C-Suite Executive’s Guide to Leading High-Performance Teams & Resolving Workplace Conflict! Are you a leader struggling with difficult team dynamics, unproductive employees, or workplace conflict? Do you want to enhance collaboration, build trust, and hold your team accountable—without micromanaging? What You’ll Gain from This Book: How to Handle Difficult Personalities – Learn to manage manipulators, passive-aggressors, narcissists, and workplace bullies with confidence. Conflict Resolution & Mediation Tactics – Turn workplace tension into opportunities for team growth and innovation.

Fully revised and updated—the national bestselling communication skills guide that will help you achieve personal and professional success one conversation at a time. The master teacher of positive change through powerful communication, Susan Scott wants you to succeed. To do that, she...

Some fires do not start on the fireground. They start in conversations, in silence, in unchecked behavior, and in the cultural embers that slowly burn inside our organizations. Managing people today is more complex and riskier than ever. Technology fuels misinformation and hostility, personal struggles spill into the workplace, and the culture of the firehouse is not immune. What happens online and at home shows up at roll call—and when it does, some of the people we work with become difficult. Dealing with Difficult People is a handbook for leaders who find themselves unprepared for the ...

Dealing with your ex-husband, who can't seem to show up reliably for weekends with the kids; navigating a workplace fraught with office politics or racial tensions; saying "I'm sorry" or "I love you". We all have difficult conversations, no matter how confident or competent we are. And too often...

In Difficult Conversations Don't Have to be Difficult, bestselling author Jon Gordon and veteran human resources professional and executive coach Amy P. Kelly deliver an inspiring new take on how to make tough workplace conversations an asset in building a stronger team and organization. The book, written as a business fable, follows Ruth, the CEO of a successful multinational company who has been instructed by her board to prepare her company for sale.

The way we traditionally think about feedback, accountability, and performance management prevents us from being the kind of human beings we want to be. The emphasis on pressure, discipline, and controlling others is not comfortable. Traditional advice for giving feedback comes up short; we prepare and practice scripts that fail us. Too often we walk away feeling miserable without accomplishing what we had hoped.

Achieve confident connection and calm collaboration in just 30 days without changing your entire personality or sacrificing your boundaries. Do you ever wish you could keep your cool during tough conversations at work or at home, no matter how stressed or triggered you feel? Are you tired of repeating the same arguments, missing social cues, or feeling misunderstood by colleagues, friends, or your kids? Have past promises of “quick fixes” left you frustrated and doubting real change is possible for you? Then, you’re exactly who this book was written for. Emotional Intelligence at Work...

Learn how to read people, build trust and handle even the most difficult conversations with confidence. All of us have to deal with difficult people. Whether we're asking our neighbour to move a fence or our boss for a pay rise, we can struggle to avoid arguments and get what we want. Leading...

Physicians enter their professions with the highest of hopes and ideals for compassionate and efficient patient care. Along the way, however, recurring problems arise in their interactions with some patients that lead physicians to label them as "difficult." Some studies indicate that physicians identify 15 percent or more of their patients as "difficult." The negative feelings that physicians have toward these patients may lead to frustration, cynicism, and burnout.

Whether you're in the trenches or the boardroom, you're going to encounter demanding, dissatisfied, and disagreeable customers. Are your people (and you) prepared to deal with them? Ignore a valid complaint and you could be the next viral sensation for all the wrong reasons. But give in to every demand and you may be consumed with the often petty complaints of your worst customers and wind up pandering to them with freebies, discounts, and special attention.