How to Tell Anyone Anything

CHAPTER 10

Managing the Dialogue: Response and Counter-Response

In an ideal world, you would give people feedback, the recipients of this feedback would appreciate it, and everyone would live happily ever after. Unfortunately, you live on this planet. This means that one of the most important parts of your feedback toolkit is understanding how to respond to objections, criticism, or negativity.

Here as well, our human nature works against us, but the right communications skills can move us from our instinctive stance of “Here is why I am right and you are wrong” to a more authentic one of “I understand and respect how you feel, and here is the issue we need to solve together.” This chapter looks at common types of response scenarios, and the ...