How To Manage Pushback in Tough Conversations

Free Lesson

How To Manage Pushback in Tough Conversations

Hosted by Linda Scotti

85 students

In this video

What you'll learn

Understand Why Feedback Triggers Resistance

Learn why even well-intentioned feedback creates defensiveness, pushback, or shutdown.

Spot The Hidden Trigger In Any Conversation

Identify which nervous system need is being threatened (status, fairness, autonomy, etc.) in real time.

Use One Simple Shift To Change The Dynamic

Apply a brain-friendly opener + one question that moves someone from “yes, but…” to ownership.

Why this topic matters

Most managers don’t struggle with knowing what to say. They struggle with what happens after they say it. Pushback, excuses, silence, or polite agreement followed by no change. That’s not a communication problem. It’s a nervous system problem. When someone feels threatened, they stop processing feedback and start protecting themselves. This session gives you a simple way to reduce defensiveness.

You'll learn from

Linda Scotti

Executive Coach Driving Measurable Leadership Effectiveness and Behaviour

Linda empowers sales managers to lead high-performing teams in the AI era. With 10+ years of corporate coaching and 20+ years in tech, she blends sales enablement expertise with practical leadership development. After 12+ years growing enterprise clients at Google and 5 years coaching GTM leaders at Indeed, she now helps sales managers use AI to elevate their coaching and their team’s performance.

Her coaching has delivered measurable gains in sales results, career progression and manager effectiveness, with over 90% of leaders achieving or making strong progress on their goals and a 4.9/5 satisfaction rating. Linda is known for sparking fast, meaningful breakthroughs that help managers coach with clarity, confidence and influence.

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