Navigating Difficult Conversations
Handle difficult conversations calmly and productively.
About this course
Handle difficult conversations calmly and productively. In one day you will understand why they feel hard, recognise your own triggers, follow a practical approach for feedback, accountability and boundaries, and leave with a personal plan for future conversations.
What you'll learn
- Recognize common causes of difficult workplace conversations and challenging interactions.
- Identify personal communication habits, triggers, and conversational tendencies under pressure.
- Use practical communication techniques to navigate tense or sensitive discussions professionally and effectively.
- Practice strategies for feedback, accountability, boundary-setting, and other common difficult workplace conversations.
- Apply a practical conversation approach to navigate challenging discussions with greater clarity, adaptability, and effectiveness.
Curriculum
- Common causes of challenging workplace conversations
- Why people avoid difficult conversations
- The costs of avoiding difficult conversations
- Personal communication habits and conversational tendencies
- Managing reactions under pressure
- Emotional intelligence and perspective-taking
- Preparing with greater awareness
- Communicating with clarity and curiosity
- Building shared understanding
- Feedback conversations
- Accountability, boundaries, managing up, workplace friction, and delivering bad news
- Adapting the approach to different workplace situations
- Helping others feel heard through listening and questions
- Communicating in ways that reduce defensiveness
- Creating a personal conversation plan for future difficult conversations
Who it's for
Managers and professionals at any level.
Before you start
No formal prerequisites. Bring curiosity and a willingness to practise.
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