Published on October 27, 2014

IEEE USA will be presenting a webinar, led by Dr. Julia Williams, on “Difficult Conversations — Strategies that can help make you a better listener, a better speaker, and a better person!”

Date: 30 October 2014, Time: 2:00 – 3:00 PM EDT
URL: http://www.ieeeusa.org/careers/webinars/2014/webinar-10-30-14.html

Engineers need to take leadership roles: this idea is often cited as the way to improve the future of engineering in the United States. These leadership roles are diverse, everything from getting more engineers into public office to encouraging engineers who are successful in their technical fields to aspire to leadership in national organizations (such as IEEE). The problem remains, however, that engineers in general may feel less prepared to follow these career directions because of their lack of confidence in their communication abilities. One way to target your communication skills is to consider “difficult conversations,” a term developed by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen in their book Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most. In this presentation, Dr. Julia Williams will introduce you to the principles that can help engineers negotiate through difficult conversations, resulting in better listening and communication. She also give examples of how the principles can be applied to real world situations you may face in the workplace or in the public sector.