Difficult Conversations
How to Discuss What Matters Most
by Douglas Stone
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More Recommenders
“@amyvpellegrini I really liked a book called Difficult Conversations. I also love the book Nonviolent Communication for conflicts. | @insta_eich i love the book! | @josh_wills @karlhigley This book helped me navigate some minefields during my first software job after college: “Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most” | A valuable lesson that never gets easier to implement: There’s always some looming hard conversation that you haven’t had with someone yet, but need to. Have that conversation as soon as possible. Life improves through difficult conversations. This book helps: | Sheila Heen’s books Difficult Conversations and Thanks for the Feedback are coaching classics that have really influenced my thinking. I get to keep the learning going when I talk with her during next week’s coaching…”
Source →“@amyvpellegrini I really liked a book called Difficult Conversations. I also love the book Nonviolent Communication for conflicts. | @insta_eich i love the book! | @josh_wills @karlhigley This book helped me navigate some minefields during my first software job after college: “Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most” | A valuable lesson that never gets easier to implement: There’s always some looming hard conversation that you haven’t had with someone yet, but need to. Have that conversation as soon as possible. Life improves through difficult conversations. This book helps: | Sheila Heen’s books Difficult Conversations and Thanks for the Feedback are coaching classics that have really influenced my thinking. I get to keep the learning going when I talk with her during next week’s coaching…”
Source →“@amyvpellegrini I really liked a book called Difficult Conversations. I also love the book Nonviolent Communication for conflicts. | @insta_eich i love the book! | @josh_wills @karlhigley This book helped me navigate some minefields during my first software job after college: “Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most” | A valuable lesson that never gets easier to implement: There’s always some looming hard conversation that you haven’t had with someone yet, but need to. Have that conversation as soon as possible. Life improves through difficult conversations. This book helps: | Sheila Heen’s books Difficult Conversations and Thanks for the Feedback are coaching classics that have really influenced my thinking. I get to keep the learning going when I talk with her during next week’s coaching…”
Source →“@amyvpellegrini I really liked a book called Difficult Conversations. I also love the book Nonviolent Communication for conflicts. | @insta_eich i love the book! | @josh_wills @karlhigley This book helped me navigate some minefields during my first software job after college: “Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most” | A valuable lesson that never gets easier to implement: There’s always some looming hard conversation that you haven’t had with someone yet, but need to. Have that conversation as soon as possible. Life improves through difficult conversations. This book helps: | Sheila Heen’s books Difficult Conversations and Thanks for the Feedback are coaching classics that have really influenced my thinking. I get to keep the learning going when I talk with her during next week’s coaching…”
Source →“@amyvpellegrini I really liked a book called Difficult Conversations. I also love the book Nonviolent Communication for conflicts. | @insta_eich i love the book! | @josh_wills @karlhigley This book helped me navigate some minefields during my first software job after college: “Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most” | A valuable lesson that never gets easier to implement: There’s always some looming hard conversation that you haven’t had with someone yet, but need to. Have that conversation as soon as possible. Life improves through difficult conversations. This book helps: | Sheila Heen’s books Difficult Conversations and Thanks for the Feedback are coaching classics that have really influenced my thinking. I get to keep the learning going when I talk with her during next week’s coaching…”
Source →Recommended by 7 notable people, including Patrick O'Shaughnessy and Ryan Hoover
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Recommended by 7 sources and appears in Conflict Resolution, Effective Communication, and Communication.
Whether you're dealing with an under performing employee, disagreeing with your spouse about money or childrearing, negotiating with a difficult client, or simply saying "no," or "I'm sorry," or "I love you," we attempt or avoid difficult conversation every day. Based on fifteen years of research at the Harvard Negotiation Project, Difficult Conve...
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Why recommended
Recommended by 7 sources and appears in Conflict Resolution, Effective Communication, and Communication.
Recommended by notable people
People and public figures who have recommended this book.
Recommendation Signals
Recommendation proof is sourced from public posts, interviews, reading lists, and cited references.
Jim Knight
“@amyvpellegrini I really liked a book called Difficult Conversations. I also love the book Nonviolent Communication for conflicts. | @insta_eich i love the book! | @josh_wills @karlhigley This book helped me navigate some minefields during my first software job after college: “Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most” | A valuable lesson that never gets easier to implement: There’s always some looming hard conversation that you haven’t had with someone yet, but need to. Have that conversation as soon as possible. Life improves through difficult conversations. This book helps: | Sheila Heen’s books Difficult Conversations and Thanks for the Feedback are coaching classics that have really influenced my thinking. I get to keep the learning going when I talk with her during next week’s coaching…”
Appears In
Not sure if this is the right fit?
Consider Influence by Robert Cialdini. Recommended by 16 sources.
“This is a book that pulls apart the psychological shortcuts we use to make decisions, then shows how to deploy them in business contexts. The writing is clear and heavy on real-world examples from sales and marketing, which makes the principles stick but can leave you feeling like you’ve just taken a master class in manipulation. Its useful part is giving a language for the invisible forces that shape everyday choices. The main limitation: it can feel overly tactical, as if relationships are just a series of triggers to be pulled, offering little on building genuine influence through trust.”
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Each recommendation is collected from a public source — interviews, articles, or curated lists — and linked to its original URL. Books with many verifiable recommendations from respected people rank higher.
Difficult Conversations
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