• Critical responsibility: Leaders have to shift attitudes, resolve issues, and strengthen the leadership bench—but conversations meant to help people improve are often awkward and trying with slow or no results
• New approach: Reynolds’ technique, informed by neuroscience, shows leaders how to open peoples’ eyes to their blinds spots—they see for themselves what they must do to achieve better results

Leaders, managers, and coaches are charged with getting people to stretch their limits but are often unsuccessful. Top leadership coach Marcia Reynolds says the problem is, incorrectly handled, difficult conversations create more resistance than growth. Reynolds offers a model and methods for discovering what to say so people change their own minds. As a result, leaders equip people to find their own solutions, see situations more strategically, and grow beyond their limitations. 

Reynolds explains how to pick the right time and place to enter the discomfort zone and how to create a “safety bubble” so that people will trust your intentions. Then, drawing on recent discoveries in the neuroscience of learning, she helps leaders ask the kinds of questions that short-circuit the brain’s defense mechanisms and habitual thought patterns. Instead of being told, people see for themselves where they’re falling short and how they can do better, resulting in lasting changes. She includes numerous examples and case studies to see the techniques in action.

Conversations in the Discomfort Zone will never be easy. But with Reynolds’s assistance, a trip there will result in breakthrough solutions, lasting changes, and an engaged workforce.