It’s wishful thinking to imagine difficult conversations will never arise in the workplace. As inevitable as it is uncomfortable, you’ll likely have to initiate a challenging conversation with a colleague sooner or later. Whether dealing with differing opinions, navigating sensitive topics, or addressing conflict, finding the right way to approach this tough task will help you improve the likelihood of a successful outcome.

When Are Challenging Conversations Necessary?

As much as you may try to avoid getting stuck in a difficult conversation, many issues within the workplace will not dissipate if they’re not addressed. Still, simply ignoring the problem at hand is the way that 53% of employees choose to handle a “toxic” situation. Only 24% of employees would choose to address the situation directly. Avoiding a challenging conversation can prolong the problem, lower team morale, and hurt business productivity.

For context, let’s imagine a scenario warranting a difficult workplace conversation. You and a colleague may share responsibilities–whether that’s managing client communication, handling administrative tasks, or producing certain deliverables–but you find them delegating tasks to you. Maybe they’ve started to hand off client onboarding, report generation, or other tasks they also should be managing. As your workload increases, finding the right way to discuss this imbalance with your colleague can help you remedy the situation and come to a mutually agreeable resolution. Without the right communication skills, you could be among the 49.7% of individuals who don’t report a positive outcome, such as increased stress levels, resentment towards your colleague, or lowered performance as you struggle to get all the tasks done.

Preparing For a Successful Conversation

Challenging conversations are difficult for a reason, but taking the time to prepare can help you effectively communicate your point of view without sounding accusatory or aggressive. Here are a few steps you can take to make the conversation productive and successful:

1. Determine Your Talking Points: Start by jotting down the key points you’re looking to communicate with your colleague. This can help guide the conversation, but remember, you don’t need to prepare a script. While you can try to predict what your colleague might say, the real-life conversation may not go as planned. Instead, approach the conversation with a flexible mindset and have a variety of potential responses ready to go. This will help you maintain a forward momentum throughout the discussion.
2. Focus On The Facts: Many workplace issues can stir negative feelings and strong emotions. While you want to convey to your colleague how the issue is affecting you, you’ll also want to focus on the facts of the situation. By focusing on the facts, you can help to separate what might be assumptions from the truth. Armed with facts, this can help you support your argument and avoid making the matter too personal.
3. Seek Understanding Over Agreement: When dealing with some challenging situations, it can be difficult to see eye-to-eye. Many workplace conflicts stem from misunderstandings, so establishing a mutual understanding between two individuals can ensure you’re not missing out on vital information. During the conversation, ensure your colleague feels heard and has the chance to express their perspective as well.
4. Work Together to Find a Solution: These conversations are not about who’s right and who’s wrong. If your conversation has been successful and productive, it should result in actionable steps you and your colleague can take together to resolve the issue. You can also seek to agree on a timeframe for a follow-up meeting to revisit the situation and ensure everyone is on the same page.

Difficult Conversations Pay Off

Even with the best preparation, tough conversations will never be fun. Still, they can have a significant, positive impact on colleagues and the larger organization. These benefits can include:

● Strengthening workplace relationships and fostering an environment of trust
● Clearing up misunderstandings or misconceptions
● Reducing workplace stress by de-escalating issues
● Improving productivity and collaboration by removing roadblocks
● Enhancing communication skills

Thus, individuals within an organization need to identify when there is an opportunity for them to address issues with a challenging conversation. Not only will they be able to seek a better outcome for themselves, but these colleagues can also drive valuable change within the organization.

For leaders who are unsure where to start tackling their team’s issues, Connect the Dots can help teams develop new tools to engage and be productive with their teammates.

Contact us to learn more about our team development and performance solutions.

Brenda will be part of a panel discussion with Washington University colleagues Andrea Kressel, Cynthia Marich, and Philip Payne, Ph.D. The panel topic is: The great disconnection: What leaders in academic medicine need to know and do to engage and develop talent.

Description:

Recent years have served as an accelerator for organizations to transform traditional workplace norms to more holistically support today’s workforce. Organizations can no longer argue that productivity decreases in the hybrid setting. Skilled knowledge workers in a healthcare and academic setting are in demand; if they are not entrusted to personalize and adjust their workdays, they will go elsewhere. To manage effectively, Peter Drucker writes, “means to face up to the new realities. It means starting out with the question, ‘what is the world really like?’ rather than with assertions and assumptions that made sense only a few years ago.”

Learning objectives:

• Define leadership traits and competencies needed for successfully managing today’s academic healthcare workforce, including managing ambiguity and instilling trust in colleagues and employees
• Address gaps that exist in much of the academic health workforce to support professional development and career transitions
• Provide current academic healthcare workforce data to support how to lead today’s knowledge workers
• Discuss tools that align most effectively for a hybrid workforce

We are pleased to partner with Val Ries, author of Chief Inspiration Officer, to offer a Management Mastery Class for developing your leaders.  We hosted a webinar to review the details of the program and offer pilot pricing.  We are looking for a few qualified organizations to launch a pilot in early 2023.

Please check out the recording for more information and feel free to reach out with any questions.