Professional Leadership Tidbits
Leading and working effectively with difficult people can prove to be a never-ending challenge. There are times when it seems almost impossible to work with them, but it is not. You must have the skills, ability and willingness to deal with these situations with the utmost professionalism.
There are also times when we must have crucial conversations with those we work or live with. These conversations can be most uncomfortable because of the emotions, high risk and range of opinions involved. However, there is help and hope. Below are some best practices to have those crucial conversations.
Best practices for handling crucial conversations:
Know your objective when entering into crucial conversations.
What do I want out of this conversation?
Check your motives when preparing to have the conversations.
Why am I really having this conversation? Be careful of pride and an “I’ll show you” attitude.
Recognize that you are in a crucial conversation.
How will I know when the conversation becomes crucial?
Monitor your emotions?
What am I feeling/thinking now? Is it flight, or is it fight?
Manage your emotions.
Am I choosing to react or respond?
Be willing to switch or flex your conflict communication style.
Should I change my approach?
Avoid accusing and attacking. These will lead to confrontation and serve no real professional purpose.
Listen deeper past the emotion to hear what is really being said.
Always look for the win/win solution if at all possible.
Employ exceptional interpersonal skills:
Empathy and understanding,
Active listening
Problem solve
Firm, yet fair
Tactfulness with truthfulness
Take responsibility to hold others accountable
Lisa G. Gilbert – No-Nonsense Training Solutions™, Inc. “Professional Leadership Tidbits”, 2012