Ask a Manager: How to Navigate Clueless Colleagues, Lunch-Stealing Bosses, and the Rest of Your Life at Work
by Alison Green · 2018
In a nutshell
By Alison Green, creator of the Ask a Manager website (2018, Ballantine Books), this is a practical script-based guide to handling awkward workplace conversations, from giving feedback to negotiating raises to managing difficult coworkers.
Overview
Alison Green, a longtime workplace-advice columnist, published Ask a Manager in 2018 through Ballantine Books, based on her popular advice site of the same name.
Key Ideas
- Being direct, professional, and specific resolves most workplace friction faster than avoidance.
- Scripts for common scenarios reduce the anxiety of having a hard conversation.
- Managers should address problems early rather than letting them fester.
- Clear expectations prevent many conflicts before they start.
- Confidence in tone matters as much as the actual words used.
Best For
First-time managers and employees who dread difficult workplace conversations.
Reference
Ask a Manager: How to Navigate Clueless Colleagues, Lunch-Stealing Bosses, and the Rest of Your Life at Work — publisher / official page. Summary adapted from the Awesome Startup Books collection.
If you like this, read
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High
Crucial Conversations equips founders with leadership lessons for mastering high-stakes talks essential for team building, conflict resolution, and investor negotiations. Key principles include creating safety through mutual purpose, using the STATE model for candid dialogue, and deciding on clear action items. Vs High Output Management, it prioritizes dialogue skills and emotional control over operational leverage.
Basic Black
Basic Black: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life) by Cathie Black is a leadership and career book drawing on the former Hearst Magazines president’s experience; it offers practical advice on management, negotiation, and navigating corporate growth, which can help startup founders develop leadership and organizational skills.
Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most
By Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen of the Harvard Negotiation Project (1999, updated 2023), this book breaks any hard conversation into three underlying layers: what happened, feelings, and identity. It gives founders and managers a framework for raising tough issues without triggering defensiveness.
Crucial Accountability: Tools for Resolving Violated Expectations, Broken Commitments, and Bad Behavior
By Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, and David Maxfield (2013, McGraw-Hill), the follow-up to Crucial Conversations focuses specifically on holding people accountable when they break promises or underperform. It gives a step-by-step model for these conversations that keeps relationships intact.
An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management
An Elegant Puzzle offers engineering founders leadership lessons on systems thinking for team sizing, technical debt management, and succession planning in high-growth environments. Key principles include organizational design frameworks and cross-functional collaboration for effective team building. Vs High Output Management, it delivers specialized tactics for engineering leaders navigating hypergrowth.
Empowered: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products
A comprehensive guide to product leadership by Marty Cagan and Chris Jones from Silicon Valley Product Group. The book reveals how leading tech companies enable their people to work together to solve hard problems and create extraordinary products through empowered product teams.