Fierce Conversations

A few people have recommended the book Fierce Conversations to me.  Bren over at Slacker Manager  recently heard its author Susan Scott, author of the book (and CEO of the company, Fierce, Inc) speak.

You can read his excellent summary and thoughts here.But I really liked this (Principle Two of Fierce Conversations):

"Come out from behind yourself into the conversation."

Think about it....

Or this one which I know will come in handy with the Performance Reviews I am doing with some of my staff next week:

Susan gives a great tip on really getting people to cough up opnions. Too often, folks who are just tired, or who don't want to risk derision, repond to the "What do you think?" question with "I don't know."  Susan advises us to follow up with "If you did know, what would you think?"

I can see it now:

What do you think you have achieved in the area of x since the last review?"

"Nothing much..."

"What would you have done if you could have done something?"

Then you have helped them set some goals for the next period.

It's a great summary, and I will add Fierce Conversations to my 2005 reading list.

(Thanks to Engineer2Entreprenuer for the tip)