Amy Gallo

Not getting a promotion you were promised can bring up a whole host of feelings, from frustration to resentment. In this article, HBR’s advice columnist Amy Gallo answers a question from a reader who is facing this situation and offers advice and resources for how to work through their disappointment while keeping their career growing.

Active listening requires mastering many skills, including reading body language and tone of voice, maintaining your attention, and being aware of and controlling your emotional response. In this article, the author explains what active listening is and how to improve this essential communication skill.

Covering for your boss when they’re out on leave can present a unique opportunity — it gives you the chance to showcase your skills and readiness for a promotion — but it can also be detrimental if you don’t handle the situation carefully. In this advice column, workplace expert Amy Gallo answers a question from a reader who’s looking for guidance on how to demonstrate her own abilities while her boss is out on maternity leave without overstepping. Amy outlines steps to try as well as pitfalls t…

Handling scope creep is one of the most challenging – and important — aspects of a project manager’s role. This often means saying “no” when stakeholders request additional features or changes. In this article, the author outlines practical strategies for how to push back on more work in a way that maintains your relationship with the requester, whether that’s the project sponsor, a customer, or another stakeholder.

Raining on people’s parade is rarely welcome. How can you moderate your pessimism so that you can be effective — and have healthy relationships with your colleagues? In this article, the author outlines practical, research-backed strategies to try. You may not be able to change your outlook — particularly if you’re someone who has a prevention focus — but remind yourself that you do have agency. And you can make choices to change your behavior so that your negativity isn’t infecting anyone else.

Getting Along: My Coworker Is Sabotaging Me — and My Boss Won’t Help

Working with someone who is set on undermining you can be incredibly frustrating. And it can feel especially defeating if your boss doesn’t intervene when you try to get their support. This is the situation one of our readers finds themselves in. They wrote to our advice columnist, Amy Gallo, looking for help, and Amy shares her research-backed recommendations in this article.

Building a relationship with a difficult colleague may seem hard, but it’s a skill you can learn. In this piece, the author outlines three common archetypes of difficult coworkers — the pessimist, the passive-aggressive peer, and the know-it-all — and offers practical ways to manage your relationship with each of them. Sometimes trying something new, even something small, can shift the dynamic between you and a coworker who gets under your skin.

Working for an insecure manager can be incredibly demotivating. What should you do if you think your manager doesn’t trust you? In this advice column, workplace expert Amy Gallo answers a question from a reader who’s in the thick of this situation. They feel like they’re constantly walking on eggshells to ensure they don’t set their boss off — and they’re not sure what to do next. Amy offers three research-backed approaches to try. The first one is about signaling that you’re not a rival; the se…

What exactly is psychological safety? It’s a term that’s used a lot but is often misunderstood. In this piece, the author answers the following questions with input from Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson, who coined the phrase “team psychological safety”: 1) What is psychological safety? 2) Why is psychological safety important? 3) How has the idea evolved? 4) How do you know if your team has it? 5) How do you create psychological safety? 6) What are common misconceptions?