Follow Through

You made it through the conversation—congratulations! The time and effort you invested in thinking through and preparing for the interaction paid off. You avoided land mines, maintained a constructive tone, and agreed on at least one next step. Hopefully your counterpart shares your positive assessment. But there’s still work to do. It’s very possible that the conversation ended before you could flesh out the details of an action plan. Or maybe you came away thinking that there were important points you didn’t bring up or you wish you had been able to respond to the other person more effectively. Now comes the essential work of solidifying and building on the gains you made in the conversation to ensure a more productive working ...

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