Leadership Skill: How to Handle Difficult Conversations
FYI! Do your people (or you) balk at new ideas? When listening to a new approach to a persistent problem or novel ways to handle them - keep a positive attitude. You may have heard it before, tried it yourself in the past, etc. but don’t put them down for trying to help. Look for key strong points, take notes, and ask them to keep the ideas coming. Whether or not this one is actionable is not the point - one of these times they will hit on just what you’ve been missing. If you encourage them to keep thinking about ways to do things.
A good leader has the ability to empower others. It is important that a leader develop people who want to share and help in carrying out the goals of the organization. If it is your intention to develop a company where employees feel valued and appreciated, then how you handle disagreements can be crucial. 1. Whatever the issue - bring it up in private. When you bring up disagreements in public those not involved feel out-of-place and uncomfortable. Also, their opinion of you is lowered. 2. Be sure of what you want to say, do it as soon as you can and deal only with the facts. Know what you want to say before bringing up the issue and don’t let a lot of time go by before you say anything. Letting the issue sit will not make it go away but will make it bigger. Resentment sets in when there is a problem or a difficult situation and nothing is being done to solve it. FYI! Position or title does not equate to leadership. Just because you may be the CEO, President or a department head does not mean you have leadership attitudes or ability.
3. There may be many issues that you want to discuss but discuss only one at a time. Too many issues at one time can be overwhelming and it will be difficult to come to a solution. 4. Keep your voice at a moderate tone and do not speak in an accusatory manner. Using a loud voice and an accusatory tone can be intimidating and will be seen as aggression and can lead to a battle of words where no one listens and both parties lose. For those more timid, when faced with an intimidating person they will retreat, say nothing or say anything to keep the peace. FYI! Ask questions. Effective leadership involves empowering your downline to do things for themselves.
5. Give the person a chance to state their feelings or opinion and if you think you have heard something that you do not like, ask them to repeat it and try to understand - do not get defensive. Sometimes when we assume we know the whole story and in our quest to be �right’ we only half listen. Instead of listening to understand we listen to contradict. Listen to understand. 6. Look at the issue from their point-of-view. Do not assume you know what the other person is thinking or that you know the whole story. Do not bring up things that the person cannot change. Treat the person with respect and try to come to a solution that will benefit both parties. If you were wrong apologize. Sheila Dicks is a wardrobe and image consultant who teaches women how to look slimmer by dressing to suit their body type. Visit her at http://www.sheilasfashionsense.com to download a copy of her e-book Image Makeovers and get How to Build a Wardrobe free.  Realize Your Personal, Professional, and Business Potential With A Little Help From Your Friends. Leave a ReplyYou must be logged in to post a comment. |
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