Observing without evaluating

Good communicators are able to separate their observations of a situation from their evaluations or judgments of it.

For example,  "Janice works too much" contains an evaluation: working too much is subjective, and if Janice heard that, she may take it as criticism and become defensive. Saying "Janice spent more than 60 hours at the office this week" is an observation without any judgments attached.