Is your teamwork not working? Dan and Alison answer your questions with the help of Amy Edmondson, a professor at Harvard Business School. They talk through what to do when your team isn’t communicating, doesn’t respect its leader, or has one employee who’s causing problems. From Alison and Dan’s reading list: HBR: The Three Pillars of a Teaming Culture by Amy Edmondson — “When you join an unfamiliar team or start a challenging new project, self-protection is a natural ins tinct. It’s not possible to look good or be right all the time when collaborating on an endeavor with uncertain outcomes. But when you’re concerned about yourself, you tend to be less interested in others, less passionate about your shared cause, and unable to understand different points of view. So it takes conscious work to shift the culture.” HBR: Too Much Team Harmony Can Kill Creativity by Darko Lovric and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic — “Consistent with these famous case studies, scientific research shows that creativity and innovation can be enhanced by reducing team harmony. For instance, a recent study of 100 product development teams found that two common disruptors of team harmony, namely diversity and task uncertainty, were positively associated with creative performance.” HBR: Eight Ways to Build Collaborative Teams by Lynda Gratton and Tamara J. Erickson — “Our study showed that a number of skills were crucial: appreciating others, being able to engage in purposeful conversations, productively and creatively resolving conflicts, and program management. By training employees in those areas, a company’s human resources or corporate learning department can make an important difference in team performance.” HBR: The Secrets of Great Teamwork by Martine Haas and Mark Mortensen — “Team assignments should be designed with equal care. Not every task has to be highly creative or inspiring; many require a certain amount of drudgery. But leaders can make any task more motivating by ensuring that the team is responsible for a significant piece of work from beginning to end, that the team members have a lot of autonomy in managing that work, and that the team receives performance feedback on it.”

How does race affect your workplace? Dan and Alison answer your questions with the help of Tina Opie, a management professor at Babson College. They talk through what to do when your company’s board is not diverse, promotions favor some people more than others, or you want to have more conversations about race at the office. From Alison and Dan’s reading list: HBR: Diversity and Authenticity by Katherine W. Phillips, Tracy L. Dumas, and Nancy P. Rothbard — “Simply hiring members of a minority group won’t ensure that they feel comfortable or equipped to build the relationships necessary for advancement. And as companies invest in mentorship and sponsorship programs, making these relationships flourish among workers of differing races may require special effort.” HBR: How Managers Can Promote Healthy Discussions About Race by Kira Hudson Banks — “Many white people may avoid conversations about race out of fear of ‘saying the wrong thing.’ And many people of color in predominantly white companies may avoid these conversations out of fear of being seen as a complainer — or worse. But pretending the elephant in the room isn’t there won’t make it go away.” HBR: A Question of Color: A Debate on Race in the U.S. Workplace by David A. Thomas and Suzy Wetlaufer — “You can’t underestimate the power of professional networks, because when they are positively focused, you no longer feel alone or isolated. You are connected with people of power in the organization in a way you have never been before. Instead of always feeling like an outsider, you feel as if you belong. You are not alone, and that can be tremendously helpful both personally and professionally.” HBR: The Costs of Racial “Color Blindness” by Michael I. Norton and Evan Apfelbaum — “Rather than avoiding race, smart companies deal with it head-on—and they recognize that ‘embracing diversity’ means recognizing all races, including the majority one, to avoid showing preference or creating a backlash. For example, Time Warner’s annual diversity summit isn’t just for people of color (or women)—it’s populated by white males, too. Talking about race can feel awkward, but over time more companies will discover that doing so is usually better than pretending it doesn’t exist.”

Do you deserve a higher salary? In a live taping with an audience of compensation experts, Dan and Alison answer your questions with the help of Susan Hollingshead, the chief people officer at Vendini. They talk through how to get more money when you haven’t been in your role long, the company isn’t giving out merit increases, or you’re at the bottom of your job’s salary range. From Alison and Dan’s reading list: HBR: How to Ask for a Raise by Carolyn O’Hara — “Pitch your raise as not only recognition for past achievements, but also tacit acknowledgment that you are a dedicated team player committed to growing with the company. Lay out your contributions, then quickly pivot to what you hope to tackle next. Assure your boss that you understand his pressures and goals, and pitch your raise as a way to help him.” HBR: New Research Shows How Employees Feel When Their Requests for Raises Are Denied by Lydia Frank — “According to our analysis, 33% of employees who were denied a raise were provided no rationale. Of those who did receive some rationale (whether budgetary constraints, performance, or some other reason), just over 25% actually believed it. And of those who didn’t believe the rationale or didn’t receive one, more than 70% said they planned to seek a new job in the next six months.” HBR: How to Get a Raise When Budgets Are Tight by Peter Bregman — “Think like a shareholder of the company. Ask lots of questions about the strategy, what’s keeping the top leaders awake at night, how your department impacts revenue or profitability, and what’s important to your direct manager. Identify, with your manager, the top two or three things you can work on that will drive revenue or profitability. Once you’ve had that conversation, you’ll have your raise-worthy work focus.” HBR: 15 Rules for Negotiating a Job Offer by Deepak Malhotra — “Sadly, to many people, ‘negotiating a job offer’ and ‘negotiating a salary’ are synonymous. But much of your satisfaction from the job will come from other factors you can negotiate—perhaps even more easily than salary. Don’t get fixated on money. Focus on the value of the entire deal: responsibilities, location, travel, flexibility in work hours, opportunities for growth and promotion, perks, support for continued education, and so forth. Think not just about how you’re willing to be rewarded but also when.”

How does working remotely complicate your career? Dan and Alison answer your questions with the help of Siobhan O’Mahony, a professor at Boston University Questrom School of Business. They talk through how to advance in your job when you’re not in the building, deal with a problematic colleague you never see, and manage teams in other offices. From Alison and Dan’s reading list: HBR: A Study of 1,100 Employees Found That Remote Workers Feel Shunned and Left Out by Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield — “Overall, remote employees may enjoy the freedom to live and work where they please, but working through and with others becomes more challenging. They report that workplace politics are more pervasive and difficult, and when conflicts arise they have a harder time resolving them.” HBR: A First-Time Manager’s Guide to Leading Virtual Teams by Mark Mortensen — “First things first: don’t panic. Remember that global, virtual, distributed teams are composed of people just like any other team. The more you and your team members can keep this in mind, the better your results will be. As the manager, encourage everyone to engage in some perspective taking: think about how you would behave if your roles were reversed. This is a small way of reminding your team that collaboration isn’t magic, but it does take some effort.” HBR: Why Remote Work Thrives in Some Companies and Fails in Others by Sean Graber — “Successful remote work is based on three core principles: communication, coordination, and culture. Broadly speaking, communication is the ability to exchange information, coordination is the ability to work toward a common goal, and culture is a shared set of customs that foster trust and engagement. In order for remote work to be successful, companies (and teams within them) must create clear processes that support each of these principles.” HBR: How to Collaborate Effectively If Your Team Is Remote by Erica Dhawan and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic — “Old school birthday cakes are still important for remote teams. Creating virtual spaces and rituals for celebrations and socializing can strengthen relationships and lay the foundation for future collaboration. Find ways to shorten the affinity distance. One company we worked with celebrated new talent by creating a personal emoji for each employee who had been there for six months.” HBR: The Secrets of Great Teamwork by Martine Haas and Mark Mortensen — “Distance and diversity, as well as digital communication and changing membership, make them especially prone to the problems of ‘us versus them’ thinking and incomplete information. The solution to both is developing a shared mindset among team members—something team leaders can do by fostering a common identity and common understanding.”

Are you looking to quit your job? Dan and Alison answer your questions with the help of David Burkus, a management professor at Oral Roberts University. They talk through what to do when you want to call out a toxic employee in your resignation letter, reject a counteroffer, or resign without burning bridges. From Alison and Dan’s reading list: HBR: What to Do After You Tell Your Boss You’re Leaving by Carolyn O’Hara — “Don’t sully your hard-won reputation by slacking off in your final few weeks. Go out on a high note by making sure that files and clients are transferred in a timely and organized fashion and that deadlines won’t be overlooked in your absence. And take the time to express gratitude for the opportunities you’ve had there. You may see former managers and colleagues again at other companies, especially if you remain in the same industry.” HBR: 7 Ways People Quit Their Jobs by Anthony C. Klotz and Mark C. Bolino — “Not surprisingly, we also found that while most voluntary turnover tends to be unpleasant for managers, they are particularly frustrated and angry when employees leave in a perfunctory, avoidant, or bridge burning manner. So employees who want to leave on good terms should steer clear of these strategies.” HBR: Setting the Record Straight: Using an Outside Offer to Get a Raise by Amy Gallo — “You also have to think about possibly damaging your relationship with people at the organization from which you got the offer if they assumed you planned on leaving your job and now you’re turning them down to stay. The hiring manager and others there likely spent time and energy interviewing you, assessing whether you’re a fit, and internally negotiating the specifics of your offer. If it’s a place you’d like to work in the future, you have to consider whether using their offer to get more from your current employee will hurt your chances to apply again later on..” HBR: Is It Time to Quit Your Job? by Amy Gallo — “Before making a final decision, make sure you’ve assessed the downsides. Even if you’re certain you’re in the wrong job, there are risks to leaving — you may damage existing relationships, lose needed income, or blemish your resume.”

Does your organization lack quality leadership? Dan and Alison answer your questions with the help of Peter Bregman, a leadership expert. They talk through what to do when your leaders are indecisive, unprofessional, or value the wrong things. From Alison and Dan’s reading list: HBR: If Your Boss Could Do Your Job, You’re More Likely to Be Happy at Work by Benjamin Artz, Amanda Goodall, and Andrew J. Oswald — “Although we found that many factors can matter for happiness at work – type of occupation, level of education, tenure, and industry are also significant, for instance – they don’t even come close to mattering as much as the boss’s technical competence. Moreover, we saw that when employees stayed in the same job but got a new boss, if the new boss was technically competent, the employees’ job satisfaction subsequently rose.” HBR: Great Leaders Are Confident, Connected, Committed, and Courageous by Peter Bregman — “No matter your age, your role, your position, your title, your profession, or your status, to get your most important work done, you have to have hard conversations, create accountability, and inspire action.” HBR: Find the Reverse Leaders in Your Midst by Scott Edinger — “Reverse leaders lead through influence, not authority, and they gain that influence by making strong interpersonal connections. To do that they must be self-aware enough to understand the effect their words and actions have on other people. As more and more knowledge work requires people to work effectively with peers, the example of the way these people treat their team members becomes increasingly important to organizational effectiveness for all leaders, formal and informal.” HBR: What You Can Do If You Have a Gossiping Boss by Joseph Grenny — “And finally, gossip is, by definition, a notoriously inaccurate source of social data. The most accurate judgments about others’ motives, competence, or actions are judgments that have been exposed to broad and open examination. Dialogue is the best vehicle for establishing social truths; gossip protects its messages from this kind of scrupulous examination. There is no integrity in a process with no accountability.”

Have you taken extended time off due to an illness? Dan and Alison answer your questions with the help of Anne Sugar, a cancer survivor and an executive coach. They talk through what to do when you’re recovering from an illness while working, giving notice after a leave of absence, or job hunting after a health-related employment gap. From Alison and Dan’s reading list: Monster.com: Job Hunting After a Medical Absence: A Delicate Balance by John Rossheim — “But be aware that prospective employers may weigh the bottom-line consequences of hiring someone who’s had a serious illness. It may be unethical or even illegal, but some employers, especially smaller ones, could consider how adding you to their health insurance rolls might drive up the group premium.” HBR: How to Welcome an Employee Back from Medical Leave by Anne Sugar — “When the employee comes back to the office, of course, there is often a sense of relief, both because your colleague has returned from a difficult time and because the extra work absorbed by coworkers can now be handed back. But leaders sometimes forget that there are many steps that must occur before employees can return to full capacity.” HBR: The Right Way to Tell Your Out-of-Work Story by Priscilla Claman — “But there are also lessons here for what you choose to emphasize about yourself when applying for a job. In sales, it’s called overcoming objections, which means understanding what negative thoughts people might have about you and proactively rebutting them. Depending on your situation, you can describe your off-work time to your advantage.” HBR: What to Do When Your Employee Is Diagnosed with Cancer by Anne Sugar — “We often think of work plans as a bureaucratic necessity. But when it comes to cancer diagnoses, developing specific plans and processes can be powerful forms of support. Given how emotional it is to receive a cancer diagnosis, many employees are understandingly too stressed to think about putting a process in place for achieving work deliverables.”

Is miscommunication a constant problem at your workplace? Dan and Alison answer your questions with the help of Holly Weeks, a lecturer at Harvard University. They talk through what to do when your coworker won’t stop talking, your boss overcommunicates with everyone on a project, or a leader keeps changing what you’re supposed to do. From Alison and Dan’s reading list: Book: Failure to Communicate by Holly Weeks — “It helps to think of a tough conversation as a landscape through which we and our counterpart move. If we look at a landscape expecting to see a battlefield, that’s how we will see it. But the landscapes of difficult conversations don’t have to be battlefields.” HBR: How to Tell a Coworker They’re Annoying You by Caroline Webb — “The trick here is to pick one specific incident and describe what I call the ‘true facts’: the things you know for sure, stripped of emotion, interpretation, or generalization. For me, that meant not saying things like ‘Your edits suck’ or ‘You’re not giving me enough space.’ These statements are debatable, because the other person can say ‘That’s not true.’ And because they’re so broadly critical, they’re more likely to put your colleague’s brain on the defensive—meaning they won’t be at their most expansive and generous as they respond. Instead, aim for something that feels more like ‘What I noticed was [fact, fact, fact].’ Be as precise and concrete as you can, even if you think there’s a big issue at stake.” HBR: Managing 3 Types of Bad Bosses by Vineet Nayar — “Omniscient leaders will challenge you and mire your ideas in discussions about the pros and cons if you present them as prescriptions. However, they love spotting great ideas themselves. Try presenting your ideas as if they are half-baked, or as though you’re unsure of their efficacy and need to hone them. That will ensure immediate buy-in by your supervisor, and rapid decisions.” HBR: When Your Boss Is Terrible at Leading Meetings by Paul Axtell — “Stepping up and offering to do something will usually be appreciated and respected. However, we all know that our ability to speak frankly with our boss is determined by the level of trust and respect that exists between us. If your boss values what you bring to the group, you can be straightforward: ‘Sam, I think we can raise the quality of our meetings by doing a couple of things differently. If you agree, I would be willing to do the following…’”

Is a recent firing weighing on you? Dan and Alison answer your questions with the help of Susan David, a psychologist and lecturer at Harvard Medical School. They talk through what to do when your coworker has been wrongfully fired, your company has massive layoffs, or you’ve been fired. From Alison and Dan’s reading list: HBR: The Right Way to Be Fired by Maryanne Peabody and Larry Stybel — “It’s natural to want to believe that the company for which you work so hard cares about you. But allowing yourself to be lulled into a false sense of security sets you up for shock and disappointment when you are fired or laid off.” First Round Review: How to Lead and Rally a Company Through a Layoff — “A layoff shouldn’t be a surprise to leaders, nor to its people. It’s not something that happens to a company. It’s an act by its leadership when no other routes can be pursued. In other words, when a layoff is your way forward, you should implicitly be telling people that you’ve exhausted every other route.” HBR: Firing Back: How Great Leaders Rebound After Career Disasters by Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld and Andrew J. Ward — “No one can truly define success and failure for us—only we can define that for ourselves. No one can take away our dignity unless we surrender it. No one can take away our hope and pride unless we relinquish them. No one can steal our creativity, imagination, and skills unless we stop thinking. No one can stop us from rebounding unless we give up.” HBR: After Layoffs, Help Survivors Be More Effective by Anthony J. Nyberg and  Charlie O. Trevor — “If your firm has downsized recently, you’re now managing a bunch of survivors—the lucky ones who didn’t get laid off. But good fortune doesn’t make for good performance—at least not in this situation. Chances are, you’re presiding over a heightened level of employee dysfunction, even if you don’t see it yet.”

Are you struggling with the complications of working in a family business? Dan and Alison answer your questions with the help of Ted Clark, who runs the Center for Family Business at Northeastern University. They talk through advancing when you’re not a member of the family, managing up when your parents are your bosses, and whether it’s better to work for a family enterprise or a big corporation. From Alison and Dan’s reading list: HBR: Surviving in a Family Business When You’re Not Part of the Family by Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer — “Successful non-family leaders stick to the ‘management room.’ They understand that when it comes to the ‘family room,’ the family has all the power; it’s never going to be a fair fight. Blood is usually thicker than water. Yet family squabbles do spill over into the management room, and non-family executives must be able to isolate the business from the family when family members can’t see past their own internal squabbling.” HBR: Avoid the Traps That Can Destroy Family Businesses by George Stalk, Jr. and Henry Foley — “An underappreciated problem is that families often grow more quickly than their businesses do. If a company founder has three children, each of whom marries and produces three more children, each of whom marries, within three generations there could be 25 people or more (including all the spouses) working or looking to work at the company. Many businesses simply don’t have enough work to employ every family member.” HBR: Saving a Family Business from Emotional Dysfunction by Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries — “The most persistent complaints I hear are that members of the senior generation refuse to share power with their adult children; that there are family members put into management positions for which they are not qualified; and that it is impossible to have a truly professional relationship with someone in the family (father, mother, uncle, aunt, brother, sister, or cousin). And all too often, the powerholders in a family business fail to address such problems effectively.” HBR: Leadership Lessons from Great Family Businesses by Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, Sonny Iqbal, and Jörg Ritter — “Leadership decisions, particularly at the very top, can be a minefield for family businesses. But our research shows that companies can navigate safely and prosper for generations if they establish good governance as a baseline, preserve family gravity, identify and develop high-potential executives both within the family and outside it, and bring the right discipline to their CEO succession and integration processes.”