The dreaded ‘we need to talk’ text, the challenging performance review...hard conversations are a fact of life. All of us dread them, and most of us suck at them. Hard conversations will always be hard, but sucking at them is a choice.
Hard conversation skills are essential for high-performers, whether your role is in HR or not. These skills apply far beyond feedback and performance reviews. Especially as AI advances, those with strong relational skills will stand out from the crowd.
The Relational intelligence and communication skills provided in this session touch all three components of ATD's capability model. This session will support building personal capability for navigating conflict, organizational capability for increasing feedback effectiveness, and professional capability for managing relationships more effectively.
Everyone will leave with a step by step guide on how to excel at hard conversations, and a new perspective on navigating relational tension.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand how to create common ground and understanding
- Practice having difficult conversations to make future ones easier
- Cultivate balance while holding tension
- Practice with maintaining boundaries
- Practice with effective listening
Participant Outcomes:
- Learn simple steps to create psychological safety with others
- Learn the art of giving and receiving difficult information
- Receive a clear framework for navigating conflict
- Learn how we respond to challenging feedback, and how to do it gracefully
- Downloadable or printed worksheet provided to participants
Agenda: 5:30 – 8:00 pm
5:30 – 6:15 pm: Registration / Light Meal / Networking
6:15 – 6:30 pm: Announcements
6:30 – 8:00 pm: Welcome & Program
This event is sponsored by:

Speaker Bio:
Gabriel DeRita | Coach

Gabriel DeRita is a leadership and communication coach renowned for helping executives master crucial conversations, build stronger team connections, and achieve measurable improvements in collaboration and performance. With extensive experience coaching senior leaders from global Fortune 500 companies such as Airbnb, LinkedIn, Goldman Sachs, PayPal, Dropbox, and Gap, Gabriel brings proven strategies and actionable frameworks to every organization he supports.
In a previous career, he held successful management and sales roles in the technology and tourism sectors, before hitting hard reset in 2018 to leave everything behind and live on a bicycle for a year to find deeper meaning and purpose. He found it in his current role, and Gabriel now dedicates himself fully to empowering leaders through executive coaching, interactive trainings and experiential workshops. His practical, engaging approach ensures leaders immediately gain tools they can apply to their toughest workplace conversations.
ATD Greater Philadelphia Chapter programs are pre-approved by the ATD Certification Institute for continuing education credits. These credits are based on the ATD Capability Model and may be applied towards initial eligibility and recertification for Certified Professional in Talent Development (CPTD) and Associate Professional in Talent Development (APTD) credentials.
ATD Certification Credits for this program: 2.50
