Managing Difficult Conversations - Sydney

Managing Difficult Conversations Sydney

That sinking feeling every time you read “Can we chat?” i n your inbox, or when you figure out that you’ve got to address someone’s performance issues but have been dreading it for weeks? We've all been there. You know the ones, the stomach-churning ones—the ones that never seem to go away, that avoiding only seems to make stronger.

Too many good managers have I seen choke here. They’d dance around the issue, talk in C-level lingo no one can understand, or worse, they’d avoid it all together and just hope the problem “fixes” itself. Spoiler alert: it never does.

Here’s what I’ve learned from years of training managers and working through plenty of workplace drama of my own: Difficult conversations don’t have to feel like career-ending catastrophes. In fact, they can strengthen relationships and solve problems — just as long as you know how to handle them the right way.

Consider the last time you had to tell someone their work was not good enough or needed to be addressed someone else’s disruptive behaviour in meetings. Did you get sucked into a defensive duel? Did the other person go cold turkey? Or perhaps you left feeling as though nothing was actually solved? That’s exactly what we’re going to change.

In that training you are going to learn how to have those difficult conversations without ruining your relationships and wrecking your own sanity. This is real world, not playing with idealized actors, but dealing with real defensive colleagues, emotional teammates, where there’s no obvious answer that can be assured to be right.

You will learn how to prepare for these meetings so you are not just winging it. We’ll talk about how to keep your cool when the other person starts steaming (and they will), and how to keep the conversation centered around solving problems rather than placing blame. More important, you’ll learn how you should hold these conversations so the work relationship actually gets better, not worse.

What You'll Learn

How to prepare for tough talks so you feel less scared, not sick to your stomach

How to stay calm and focused when your emotions, and your drivers’, are running high

Tips for dealing with the underlying problem without putting anyone in a defensive situation

How to correctly listen when someone is upset or angry (it's a lot more difficult than you'd think)

How to find common ground, even in an impossible situation

How to follow up after hard conversations so that your improvements stick

Concluding Remarks

No one likes hard talks, but they’re part of dealing with human beings. How well they navigate these moments tends to separate those managers that thrive from those who just get by. This isn’t to turn you into a shark who is only out for blood in an argument, it’s to help you become someone who can confidently stand up for themselves and handle any issues before they turn into huge issues. You’ll leave with a clear strategy for how to handle your next tough conversation — whether it’s with a direct report, a peer, or even your boss. And the best part? As you grow in the rest of the steps, those conversations only become less terrifying, and league more of a chance to grow professionally in disguise.