Harder conversations

Some conversations carry more weight: telling a teammate they are not pulling their weight, asking a manager for a raise or a different project, raising a mistake you made. Prepare them like a presentation. Write down what you want to happen, the facts, how the other person might see it, and your first sentence.

Start with the facts, not a judgement: "The last three deadlines slipped on my part of the project because I was waiting for the API" rather than "You never deliver". Listen to their side before deciding what happened. Books such as Crucial Conversations go deeper.