Quotes from Susan Scott

In any situation, the person who can most accurately describe reality without laying blame will emerge as the leader, whether designated or not. Here's

At Sundance, Robert Redford begins meetings by saying, "I am inviting you to influence me. I want to be different when this meeting is over.

Unreal conversations are expensive, for the individual and the organization.

How much love you have is up to you and while it may seem complicated, it isn't.  Not really. It's all about our conversations.  By having honest, courageous, meaningful conversations with your partner, you can foster true connection and a fierce love that will withstand the test of time and grow stronger over the years.

While no single conversation is guaranteed to change the trajectory of a relationship, any single conversation can.

No one completes us.  No one is our missing piece, our other half.  We complete ourselves or fail to.   No one else could be successful in that role because each of us is utterly unique.  There isn't another "you" anywhere on this planet.  If you somehow feel incomplete, the answers aren't out there somewhere.  The answers are in the room.  You have them.  

The experience of being understood, versus interpreted, is so compelling you can charge admission.

Your version of reality is as good as anybody's.

Err on the side of inclusion, rather than exclusion. Send

When our conversations become constrained, when we avoid topics that might cause upset, when we accept comments or behavior that are hurtful, we no longer aim for harmony but rather toward a sort of deafness that allows us to stay in a relationship longer than we should.  Our senses have become dulled and we end up settling, even when we are anguished. 

Listen. In every office you hear the threads of love and joy and fear and guilt, the cries for celebration and reassurance, and somehow you know that connecting those threads is what you are supposed to do and business takes care of itself.

The point is—if you want something from me, tell me! If you're upset with me, tell me! If there's something you want me to do or stop doing, tell me! If I said something that didn't go down well with you, stop the conversation right then and there and tell me! And if you're happy with me, tell me!

Whenever I feel we are being less than we could be, we talk about it. It's not always a long conversation. Sometimes it's simply a reminder that we could settle for mediocrity or we could create something truly exceptional. Our relationship is wonderful because it's a decision we make over and over.

I talk about the purposes of fierce conversations. Interrogate reality. Provoke learning. Tackle tough challenges. Enrich relationships.

Yes, the conversation is the relationship. One conversation at a time, you are building, destroying, or flatlining your relationships.

In real love4 you want the other person's good. In romantic love you want the other person.

When someone apologizes, it's amazing how much fresh air enters the room.

And because of all that we have been through, I am sick of the word unprecedented. The use of the word unprecedented is unprecedented. Make it stop.

Our intelligence, even our genius, is not given to us so we can brag or take credit for it. It is given to us so that we can be of service to others in some meaningful way.

Life isn't safe, isn't meant to be safe. It's meant to be challenging, broadening, frightening even at times. Otherwise we're not having an adventure.

You get what you tolerate.

Our work, our relationships, and our lives succeed or fail one conversation at a time. While no single conversation is guaranteed to transform a company, a relationship, or a life, any single conversation can. Speak and listen as if this is the most important conversation you will ever have with this person. It could be. Participate as if it matters. It does.

Remember that what gets talked about and how it gets talked about determines what will happen. Or won't happen. And that we succeed or fail, gradually then suddenly, one conversation at a time.

There is something within us that responds deeply to people who level with us.