**Jill Mennicken Kort, Senior Director Business Development, Forrest Solutions**

“One of my mentors was a consultant back in the 80’s that my company hired and her name is Dr. Gilda Carl, she has a PHD in Communications. I can’t even tell you, she truly changed my life. Especially being from a big family where communication was chaotic with 5 sisters and not a lot of parental guidance because my mom had passed away when I was in my 20’s. She taught me so many things, like when you have a conversation with someone and confront someone it’s ok to talk about your feelings but use ”I“ language. So don’t be accusatory and say ”YOU made me do this“. No one makes you do anything. You use ”I'“ language and say ”I felt really disappointed when you made that comment in the meeting that I did this, I felt embarrassed. I'm sure you didn't mean it, but I was embarrassed“. You'd be surprised how the other person reacts. There's such a different way to approach things. No different than asking for another day off or a promotion. If you really take time to think about it, you should prepare for all hard conversations the way you prepare a pitch for a client. Any excellent sales person is going to practice like heck on their presentation before they go in and pitch a deal. I do the same thing before anything- it doesn't matter what the ”pitch“ is.”