Onsite Programs - Communication and Influence
Managing Difficult Conversations
Managers need to be able to hold skillful, timely, difficult conversations. For life to proceed with minimal disruptions and maximum input from its stakeholders, the capacity for managing difficult conversations has become a key competency.
Whether the topic is delivering difficult news, giving tough performance feedback, or changing a policy, the reticence most managers feel about having difficult conversations with employees is common. In a recent study we conducted, we named this reluctance "the avoidance syndrome." We found it common for some managers to give feedback only during the time of the performance evaluation, long after an issue had been thought by the employee to have been resolved, causing frustration and low morale. Sometimes a lack of timely conversation between managers and employees led to poorly made decisions, stalled projects and loss of motivation by the employee.
Some managers, in their concern about triggering a reaction from an employee or a team, eventually have that conversation, but often in an unskillful or in an untimely way. When those ways of conversing deepen the problem, the manager often shuts down or withdraws and moves "the problem" to another department, or tolerates behavior that is damaging to the team or the organization. Many managers have a difficult time dealing with anger; some can't deal with silence or tears. Managing Difficult Conversations covers all of the most difficult, intense, emotionally charged types of conversations that can occur with employees, customers, managers and peers.
During Managing Difficult Conversations, managers and team leads will spend a half-day learning how to create a framework for dealing with emotions that often feel difficult to work with. In addition, participants will practice a 5-Step Model for moving through difficult conversations. The framework and the model help managers to speak the truth without avoiding the "tough stuff" and to be able to listen even if they are triggered at what they are hearing.
Unlike many communication skills training courses, Managing Difficult Conversations facilitates working with the wide range of emotions that people experience while having difficult conversations. Managing Difficult Conversations is energizing, and interactive and allows managers and team leads to obtain a lot of time to practice-in a safe environment-the types of difficult conversations that have become more a part of daily life.
Managers and team leads.
|
