For a generation entering a tough labor market, the path to landing a dream job or securing a promotion can feel like a high-stakes battle. The common advice suggests being bold, decisive, and unyielding. However, Harvard Business School professor Alison Wood Brooks , who created and teaches one of the university’s most popular courses, argues for a radically different approach rooted in 15 years of behavioral science research.

Brooks’s core message is that the most successful people are not the most forceful, but the most effective communicators who prioritize connection over persuasion.

“When we think of a good negotiator, this really tough, rigid, persuasive person comes to mind,” she explained on the Mel Robbins Podcast in April. “When we actually study people negotiating in pr

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