Prep three days before, not three minutes

Two leaders sat down for six hours last week. Six. Not because they liked each other. Because they prepped like it mattered. Here's what nobody tells you: the meeting isn't the work. The work happened three days before, in a room with no cameras, running every version of "no" until it stopped scaring them. You walk into your next hard conversation hoping it goes well. They walked in already knowing how it ends, because they built every exit before they sat down. Stop hoping for good outcomes. Start engineering them. Preparation is just confidence with receipts.