Difficult Conversations

As a manager or leader, you must engage in challenging conversations. These conversations often related to poor performance, performance improvements, excessive absences, and generally poor behavior. Difficult conversation between two or more people with differing opinions, the stakes are high, and emotions run strong. It is toxic emotions and dysfunctional behavior without open and honest conversation that causes damage. The Difficult Conversations module will provide insights and skills to prevent strong emotions from taking over the conversation and correct when emotions flare. Difficult conversations require the issue to be addressed sooner rather than later. The longer you wait, the harder the conversation becomes. The insights provided enable you to engage in challenging conversations with ease.

Courageous Conversations

Choose the Conversation

Create a Safe Environment

Difficult conversations often create anxiety, hesitance, and possibly fear in the leader and the follower. Leaders often ignore the issues and bury their heads in the sand, hoping the problem will disappear. The other option often involves preparing for a fight. In this situation, the leader brings elevated emotions, and the conversation leads to a negative outcome. After resolving to engage in the conversation, the next step involves determining the content of the conversation and how to approach the discussion.

Choosing the conversation involves determining the content of the discussion. The leader needs to investigate the issue to separate fact from fiction. Understanding what actually happened is the first step to quality conversations. Where clarity is lacking, the conversation is often doomed for failure. The Choose the Conversation module gives the skills and insights to separate assumptions from reality. The module provides tips to help you discover the true purpose of the conversation and clarify the results you seek to achieve.

After you clarify the purpose of the conversation, we need to engage in dialogue and develop a safe environment for the discussion. The objective of the conversation is to create an open dialogue between the actors to resolve the issue. Dialogue refers to the open exchange of ideas and the creative exploration of complex issues. This requires deeply listening to others while simultaneously suspending our own views. This module provides tips and techniques necessary to engage in effective dialogue. Creating a safe environment is essential for dialogue to occur. Where safety is absent, the individuals involved in the conversation often choose silence for fear of backlash, made to feel bad, ridiculed, or put down. There is no dialogue where silence occurs with the follower, and the leader is talking at the follower rather than with them. This module gives you the insights to create safety, reinstitute safety when the conversation gets off course, and create the conditions necessary for all actors to contribute to the discussion. When everyone contributes, we develop better solutions that all actors buy into.

Take Action and Follow-Up :

All difficult conversations should have an outcome, a goal, or some change to be instituted that moves the employee and organization forward. The final module discusses taking clear, concise, and concrete improvement actions. The module offers insights into the necessary elements to determine actions together. Determine actions collectively, create additional buy-in, and develop a sense of ownership for the outcome. Finally, this module helps you build an effective plan to follow up and follow through. Without follow-up and follow-through, the action plan quickly loses steam, and we fail to meet our desired results. The Difficult Conversations program provides a complete and easy-to-use process that will make your difficult conversations less stressful and more productive and get you the results you desire.