From the course: Learning to Say No with Confidence and Grace
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Diffuse tension with active listening
From the course: Learning to Say No with Confidence and Grace
Diffuse tension with active listening
- I once had a client named James. As a product lead at a tech company, much of his job involved saying no to people. In addition to driving the product vision and development, of course, he often had to turn down feature requests, prioritize some strategies over others and disappoint people by choosing certain team members for projects and not others. Despite having to say no a lot, James was loved by his direct reports, his coworkers and the executive team. And it wasn't just because he had great product management skills, which he did. It was also because he effectively navigated pushback. When sales demanded a new product dashboard, for instance, James didn't immediately dismiss them. Instead, he heard them out, and eventually they arrived at a compromise. So what was James's secret to diffusing tension? It was active listening, which refers to techniques that help you empathetically engage with another person.…
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