What To Do If...?

Reclaim your confidence at work so you can hire smarter, read the room and lead difficult moments without second-guessing yourself. What To Do If...? helps you handle real workplace situations with clarity and confidence.

Written by workplace behavior specialist Anne-Maartje Oud, this field-tested guide distils the 35 questions she's heard most over two decades training managers, HR professionals and teams. Organized into five focused parts on personal development, communication, collaboration, leadership and difficult conversations, it blends research, real examples and simple tools you can use right away.

Learn how to spot toxic hiring red flags before they damage your culture, decode body language and nonverbal cues, and respond constructively when emotions run high or someone cries at work. Use practical scripts, checklists and decision points to prepare for interviews, lead confident one-to-ones and navigate conflict with calm authority. Build emotional intelligence, set boundaries that stick and create safer, more productive conversations where performance and trust grow.

Walk away with a repeatable approach for high-stakes situations so you become the steady, trusted person who knows what to do, no matter what happens next.

Themes include: hiring and interviewing, nonverbal communication; emotions at work, difficult conversations and conflict, everyday communication and collaboration, practical leadership habits.