Managing Difficult Conversations - Brisbane
Managing Difficult Conversations, Brisbane
A Professional Development Course
Course Overview
We all know that all too familiar tightening feeling in our gut when we know we need to have "the conversation." Be it talking a team member through performance issues, carrying bad news about budget cuts or addressing office behaviour that's bringing down the entire team, these are the situations that challenge our abilities as leaders and communicators more than anything else in our professional lives.
This complete course is for Brisbane based managers, team leaders and professionals who want to improve how they handle difficult workplace conversations. Instead of seeing these conversations as battlegrounds, you'll be able to see them as opportunities for expansion, problem solving, and bonding.
By offering practical models, realistic scenarios, and guided practice, class members will gain confidence that will enable them to tackle the trickiest of workplace conversations with grace and precision. What you'll find out, though, is that when you handle difficult conversations carefully, they can actually make professional relationships better rather than worse.
Curriculum Based Learning Outcomes
At the end of this course attendees will be able to:
Foundation Skills:
Determine the different types of hard conversations and their challenges
Identify personal triggers and reactions that undermine effective communication
Systematise for difficult conversations using tested models.
Communication Competencies:
Use attentive listening mechanisms designed for high pressure situations
Use linguistic metaphors to defuse and to be professional about slippery situations
Give hard news with clarity and compassion
Advanced Applications:
Approach typical workplace situations including performance questions, team unrest, and Corporate shifts
Promote dialogue which evolves from problem recognition to the development of solutions.
Execute follow up procedures to make improvement stick.
Leadership Development:
Gain confidence to tackle issues at your workplace instead of avoiding them
Enhance relationships among team members with open, respectful dialogue
Establish psychological safe spaces to openly address challenging topics
What You Will Learn
Section 1: Understanding the Basics of Difficult Conversations and Why We Avoid Them Why we avoid confronting difficult or sensitive issues and what it really costs us. You'll examine difficult conversations versus crucial conversations, when to know it's time to intervene and when you should just sit back and wait.
Session 2: Preparing and Mentally Ready Establishing some rules you can use to prepare for difficult conversations. This involves figuring out what you're trying to accomplish, empathising with where they're coming from and controlling your emotions before you even go in.
Session 3: Opening and Framing Techniques How to launch difficult conversations in ways that invite collaboration rather than defensiveness. You're going to practice patterns of language that create safety and yet are strong in conveying the impact of the conversation.
Session 4: Controlling Emotions and Reactions Building the capability to stay in your centre when a conversation becomes passionate or emotional. This covers methods to cope with your own reactions and to assist others in turning strong emotions into constructive use.
Session 5: Active Listening in Complicated Situations Advanced session on listening skills, sidebar is caring more than you can tell about what the real issues are. You will learn how to pose powerful questions that get to root causes rather than surface symptoms.
Session 6: Problem Solving & Solution Building Transition from problem identification to working in partnership to find solutions. This talk concentrates on involving others in crafting solutions they'll be personally invested in implementing.
Session 7: Practice cases Practice typical office situations including performance deficiencies, misunderstandings, and aggressive behaviour, policy changes, and limited resources. The role play exercise preparation time, role play practice, and group feedback are part of both scenarios.
Session 8: How to Follow Up and Hold Each Other Accountable Building systems to make sure that difficult conversations turn into long term change. You'll discover how to monitor progress, offer continuing support and deal with situations where agreements aren't being kept.
Concluding Remarks
Unpleasant conversations come with professional life, but they need not be something you fear. This course will arm you with tangible skills, tested strategies and the courage to face these difficult encounters with the potential to effect positive change.
By the end of our time together, you won't recognise your old relationship with challenging conversations. Instead of deferring necessary discussions, and only addressing issues once they grow beyond where they're manageable, you will have it within yourself to handle them early and when more easily addressed. You'll learn how to plan well, convey with effectiveness and empathy, and follow up passionately so that meaningful change actually gets made.
And... perhaps even more importantly, you'll find that learning how to manage those tough conversations is what actually helps you to create strong professional relationships and to trust each other as a team. Individuals respect leaders who can handle difficult subjects ably and confidently.
This isn't about getting aggressive or shedding your natural warmth and empathy. It is about being more effective in solving problems and supporting the people you work with. Once you can handle tough conversations with ease, all the rest of leadership gets a little bit easier and a little bit more fun.