Good questions open minds and hearts, and they deepen conversations. When we inquire about others’ desires, concerns, issues of power, and standards, we invite them into collaborative, creative ...

Have you ever sensed that someone has more to say but isn’t able to say it? Perhaps your direct report insists that everything is “great!” despite her impossibly heavy workload, or you notice the same ...

You can spend years building credibility at work and still feel unprepared for the moment you need to say something uncomfortable. That one difficult conversation you wish you could avoid often turns ...

I don’t love talking with strangers. I’m an introvert at heart, and making an effort to engage in social interaction often drains my energy. But still, I do it. Not because I feel like I have to, but ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about how to optimize career success. The holidays can be a time of celebration and relaxation, but they can also induce ...

As humans, we’re talking to each other constantly. With all that practice, we must be pretty good at it—right? Not exactly. As a professor at Harvard Business School and author of Talk: The Science of ...

When we talk to strangers, if we talk to them, we often default to “small talk” or “chit-chat.” We may muse about the weather or a recent movie or what we did over the weekend. This surface-level talk ...

You can be the most outgoing person in the world and there can still be times when starting a conversation with someone new feels overwhelming. What do you say at a networking event or on a first date ...

People benefit from deep and meaningful conversations that help us forge connections with one another, but we often stick to small talk with strangers because we underestimate how much others are ...

Every day we engage in conversations rooted in ritual and social norms. With no conscious effort, we shift from one role to another. One minute, I’m a husband happily cooking breakfast with his wife.