In the revised and updated edition of Fierce Conversations, Susan Scott explains how to achieve success at work, home, and elsewhere “one conversation at a time.” In essence, a fierce conversation is “robust, intense, strong, powerful, passionate, eager, uncurbed, untamed.” That is, as Jeff Pfeffer characterizes it, “no b.s.”

We all live now in what could be called “The Age of Euphemism.” People don’t die; they “pass on.” Terminally ill pets are “put to sleep.” You get the idea.

Scott focuses on seven core principles. Here they are:

1. Master the courage to interrogate reality.
2. Come out from behind yourself into the conversation and make it real.
3. Be here, in responsibility for your emotional wake.
4. Tackle your toughest challenge today.
5. Obey your instincts.
6. Take the moment, but be prepared to be elsewhere.
7. Let silence do the heavy lifting.

Susan Scott devotes a separate chapter to each principle in the revised and updated edition of Fierce Conversations, published by New American Library (May 2017). She is a two-time best-selling author and recognized thought leader in the global business community. Susan and her company, Fierce, Inc., are committed to large-scale and individual transformation through the principles and models set forth in Susan’s books and her company’s corporate training programs.

I also highly recommend Crucial Conversations:Second Edition, co-authored by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler and published by McGraw-Hill Education (2011).