Amy Gallo

At the heart of dealing with difficult people is handling their—and your own—emotions. How do you stay calm in a tough conversation? How do you get past passive-aggressive comments? And how do you know if you're difficult to work with? Dealing with Difficult People explains the research behind our emotional response to awful colleagues—and how to build the empathy and...

Build trust - and create more value. Whether you're negotiating a salary, a deal with a supplier, or your workload, thoughtful preparation increases your confidence, resilience - and results. But it's not just numbers and strategies. Advocating for yourself, your team, and your business can feel personal, so you also need to manage the emotions that arise during the process....

Conduct more productive conversations. As a working parent, you lead meetings, advocate for your children, and make presentations that win clients—all with ease. But when your personal life spills into your professional life—whether it's negotiating a schedule change with your boss or talking to your spouse about responsibilities at home—it can be a challenge to communicate effectively and reach agreement....

Emotional intelligence has been shown to be more important than other competencies in determining outstanding leadership. Emotions drive some of our most critical professional interactions—whether you're inspiring your team to higher performance, persuading your boss to see something from your point of view, dealing with difficult colleagues, or managing your own stress level. Indeed, knowing how to manage emotions has...

HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strengthening Your Soft Skills by Richard Boyatzis, Amy Gallo, Amy Jen Su, Harvard Business Review, and Daniel Goleman will help you strengthen your soft skills and reach your leadership potential. If you read nothing else on developing your interpersonal skills, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected...

Move ahead in your career - without leaving your family behind What happens when you're no longer setting goals and chasing dreams that work for you alone? When the career choices you make have ripple effects on your family? Can you uproot your household for an overseas assignment even if it's a surefire path to promotion? How do you make...

Combat age discrimination in your workplace. Everyone experiences age-related bias at some point in their careers, but for women the costs are greater. Sure, there are laws and organisational rules prohibiting age-related discrimination, but lived experience shows there's no 'right age' to be a woman. Whether you're seen as too old or too young, ageism affects the opportunities you have...

It's time for female leaders to stand out. Women often aren't seen for their leadership potential. We face a double bind, forced to choose whether to be liked or respected, while neither one alone is enough to secure a seat at the table. It's up to organisations to change, but until then, what's an aspiring female leader to do? You,...

Relationships built on trust matter. Deep and meaningful connections, especially with other women, are critical to our careers and to our overall well-being and happiness. The bonds we build based on trust allow us to help one another, learn, and advance. But high-quality professional relationships are only possible with emotional openness and not all women, especially those from underrepresented groups,...

I'm not here to make work friends. Or am I? Managers, peers, work friends, mentors, frenemies, annoying people, romantic interests, your boss's boss, and so on. We probably spend more hours with our coworkers than with anyone else. So even if they're not all perfect, it's worth building connections with them that will provide you with support, help you network...

Overworked? Overwhelmed? Protect yourself from burnout. The amount of work placed on women is often insurmountable. Along with doing what's required for our jobs, we're often asked to manage tasks that don't lead to career growth or promotions. At work and at home, we're charged with countless forms of invisible labour that sap our time and energy. We usually rise...

Communication is key. Effective communication is essential to standing out at work and excelling in your career. But when it comes to making a convincing point in a meeting, crafting the perfect email, or nailing a presentation, there's a lot to navigate. What kind of language do you use with a varied audience? Which channel is best for which message?...

Build your ability to discuss tough topics at work. At times in our careers, we face conversations that bring out tense emotions. Our instinct may be to avoid them entirely, but engaging in challenging conversations can create opportunities to build stronger work relationships, teams, and organisations. Having Difficult Conversations will help you learn how to communicate productively under stress, offer...

While some of us enjoy a lively debate with colleagues and others prefer to suppress our feelings over disagreements, we all struggle with conflict at work. Every day, we navigate an office full of competing interests, clashing personalities, limited time and resources, and fragile egos. Sure, we share the same overarching goals as our colleagues, but we don't always agree...

Named one of '22 new books...that you should consider reading before the year is out' by Fortune 'This practical and empathetic guide to taking the high road is worth a look for workers lost in conflict.' Publisher's Weekly A research-based, practical guide for how to handle difficult people at work. Work relationships can be hard. The stress of dealing with...

Named one of '22 new books...that you should consider reading before the year is out' by Fortune A research-based, practical guide for how to handle difficult people at work. Work relationships can be hard. The stress of dealing with difficult people dampens our creativity and productivity, degrades our ability to think clearly and make sound decisions, and causes us to...

Named one of '22 new books...that you should consider reading before the year is out' by Fortune A research-based, practical guide for how to handle difficult people at work. Work relationships can be hard. The stress of dealing with difficult people dampens our creativity and productivity, degrades our ability to think clearly and make sound decisions, and causes us to...