The Postponed Conversation

Who this book is for

Người làm nhân sự ở doanh nghiệp vừa và nhỏ Việt Nam: chuyên viên nhân sự tổng hợp, trưởng phòng nhân sự một hai người, hoặc quản lý hành chính kiêm nhân sự ở công ty từ hai mươi tới vài trăm người; tự lo từ tuyển dụng, hợp đồng, chấm công, bảng lương tới đào tạo, và thường báo cáo thẳng cho giám đốc.

Sound familiar?

• Managers save everything for a single year-end talk.
• Review forms are full of vague lines like needs more effort.
• Employees are surprised by their own ratings.
• Managers avoid hard talks for fear the person will quit.

Each chapter answers one question

1. Chapter 1: Too busy to talk, or not ready to?

   What makes my team leads avoid difficult conversations?

   Difficult conversations are postponed because the speaker is not prepared, not because of lack of time.

2. Chapter 2: Is judging the person the same as being honest?

   What exactly did I see happen?

   Good feedback starts with a specific thing that happened, not a judgement about the person.

3. Chapter 3: Are we sure we've seen the whole story?

   How does the person receiving feedback see this?

   The listener usually holds part of the story the speaker cannot see.

4. Chapter 4: We talked, so why has nothing changed?

   After this meeting, who does what, and when do we review?

   A conversation is not finished without specific actions and a date to review.

5. Chapter 5: Should HR speak for managers, or stand behind them?

   How do I support team leads before and after the conversation?

   HR does not speak for team leads; HR helps team leads be able to speak.