Managing Difficult Conversations
Teaches how to prepare for and handle difficult conversations effectively, in order to maintain calm, trust and wellbeing.
Difficult conversations are an inevitable part of life at work (performance issues, private matters that have an impact on the workplace, attitude) and in our personal lives (disagreements and conflicts with friends and family).
We’ve all had bad experiences with these kind of conversations where emotions seem to take over reason and things spiral out of control in the blink of an eye.
Perhaps you lashed out at someone during a heated discussion; or your direct report started to cry during a performance review; maybe your client hung up the phone on you. As a result, we tend to avoid them. But that’s not the right answer.
Being able to deal with difficult conversations effectively is an essential life skill that is invaluable in boosting your emotional wellbeing and life satisfaction but also maintaining and growing strong business relationships.
But how do we best approach these conversations? And how do we achieve a positive outcome without alienating the individual and breaking the relationship? The key is to learn how to handle them in a way that produces a better outcome: less pain for you, and less pain for the person you’re talking to.
This workshop will first dive into the science of communication because when you understand how our brain processes and reacts to information, you get a really good idea of the problem it presents when it comes to difficult conversations and it is therefore much easier to find a fix for it.
The major challenge is not only to manage your own emotions and behaviours while you deliver a message but to also manage your counterpart’s emotions and reactions.
We will then explore a 3-step technique to handle these conversations like a pro. You will learn to prepare, manage your own emotions and engage in a way that will protect your relationship but also to subtly help your counterpart manage their own emotions and reactions so that you can both get the best outcome.
Key Outputs
Provides an understanding of what makes a conversation difficult
Teaches how to prepare effectively
Shares strategies for handling difficult conversations effectively
Avoids wasting precious energy on feeling negative about a person or situation
Teaches how to engage during conflicts to maintain at atmosphere of calm and trust