When approaching a difficult conversation at work, reframe it in your mind as a discussion that can help improve your relationship with someone, says Michele Coleman Mayes in this episode of the Asked and Answered: Lived and Learned series. “You have to work harder to listen to someone you’d rather not hear talk,” says Mayes, vice president and general counsel with the New York Public Library. You may need to have multiple difficult conversations for a situation to improve, she says, but as you repeatedly speak with the person, you can learn what sort of communication works best for him or her.

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