Soft management does not mean weak management, says William Peace in this 1991 article. It means candor, openness, and vulnerability, but it also means hard choices and responsible follow-up. It means taking the heat for difficult decisions and giving unhappy subordinates chances to unburden themselves at your expense.

Dismissing an employee can be one of the most stressful conversations a manager can face. That’s because such conversations are emotionally loaded. Weeks explains the emotional dynamics that take place in stressful conversations and emphasizes the importance of preparation before delivering painful news to an employee. She describes a method for identifying your vulnerabilities during stressful conversations and practicing more effective delivery styles and behaviors.

Problem employees pose an enormous number of legal and other challenges. This book shows you how to recognize who is and isn’t a problem employee, help problem employees get back on track, investigate problems and complaints, conduct effective performance evaluations, apply progressive discipline, and handle the many complex aspects of dismissals.

Myths about the right way to dismiss a problem worker abound. This concise resource tells you everything you need to know about intervention and retraining; the process for deciding whether to dismiss an employee; the nuts and bolts of delivering the painful news; and the laws, myths, and realities surrounding firing. As the authors make clear, you need to take important steps before, during, and after dismissing someone to reduce the risks of a wrongful-dismissal lawsuit. This book shows you how.

Informing an employee that he or she is being dismissed counts among the most difficult conversations a manager can face. This book explains how to keep a cool head in a wide range of difficult conversations—not only in the workplace but also in the other important areas of your life. The principles and practices described here can benefit you no matter what kind of difficult conversation you’re facing.

Learn the skills and concepts you need to effectively manage direct reports and be able to apply these techniques immediately to your own situation. Through interactive practice scenarios, expert guidance, on-the-job activities, and a mentoring feature, you will learn and practice how to:

• Understand direct reports’ expectations
• Manage a network of relationships
• Delegate along a continuum

Pre- and post-assessments and additional resources complete the workshop, preparing you for more productive direct report relationships.