Reflective listening to confirm meaning
Bolton teaches restating the speaker's message and feeling in your own words to verify understanding before responding. This reflection prevents the misreadings that derail most conversations.
People skills
3 ideas
Communication roadblocks that shut people down
Habitual responses like judging, advising, and diverting, though well-meant, block genuine exchange and provoke defensiveness. Bolton catalogs a dozen such roadblocks to be avoided.
Three-part assertion messages
To assert a need without attacking, describe the behavior, its concrete effect, and your feeling about it. This structure states one's position while preserving the relationship.