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Having Difficult Conversations

4.7(9,143) on LinkedIn Learning·16K enrolled
All levels 1.1 hours English Course Certificate
SkillsDifficult conversationsCommunicationConflict managementFeedbackRelationships

Is this course right for you?

Our take
Marlene Chism's LinkedIn Learning course is about the conversations most people put off — at work and in life.

Good for: Handling difficult conversations more confidently.

Skip if: You want conflict mediation training or long-form depth.

It covers addressing performance issues, managing competing priorities, and building stronger relationships through better communication, in a practical and reassuring way that's genuinely aimed at people who avoid or dread these moments. It's a focused primer rather than formal conflict-mediation training or a long-form course, so match your expectations to that. Access comes with a LinkedIn Learning subscription (usually a free trial first; free through many libraries), with a completion certificate to your profile as a learning record. The skill of handling hard conversations well never stops being valuable (as of 2026).

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About this course

Marlene Chism explains how to navigate challenging conversations in workplace and personal contexts: addressing performance issues, managing competing priorities, and building stronger relationships through better communication. The course covers identifying underlying differences in work styles and power dynamics, a structured conversation model, and strategies for handling resistance. It also covers keeping your own composure when a conversation heats up, and following through afterwards so an agreement actually holds rather than resurfacing weeks later.

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Instructor

MC
Marlene Chism
LinkedIn Learning instructor

Marlene Chism is a consultant and author specializing in conflict resolution, leadership communication, and workplace clarity.

Frequently asked questions

How to prepare for and handle conversations people tend to avoid — giving tough feedback, addressing conflict, raising sensitive issues, or delivering bad news. It covers planning what to say, managing your own and others' emotions, listening, and steering the conversation toward a constructive outcome rather than letting it turn defensive. The focus is practical technique for the moments most of us find genuinely uncomfortable at work and beyond.

Managers benefit especially, since they face these conversations often, but it is not only for them. Anyone who needs to address a problem with a colleague, push back to a boss, or navigate tension in a relationship will find it useful. It assumes no management position, focusing on transferable communication skills, so individual contributors and people in everyday life get value too.

It is short — typically an hour or two — as a focused LinkedIn Learning course. That makes it an efficient way to pick up a genuinely useful skill you can apply to a specific conversation you are dreading, without a big time commitment, and you can revisit the relevant part as a refresher before a hard discussion.

Not by default — it runs on LinkedIn Learning, which is subscription-based — but a free trial is common, and many public libraries and universities give members full access at no cost. Check whether a library card or an institution you belong to already provides LinkedIn Learning before paying, since that quietly unlocks this course and the whole catalogue.

Yes, you earn a LinkedIn Learning completion certificate for your profile. Treat it as a signal of professional development rather than a formal qualification — this is a soft skill judged by how you actually handle real conversations, not by a badge. The genuine value is the techniques themselves, which show up in calmer, more productive difficult discussions.
Paid
LinkedIn Learning subscription
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