Difficult Conversations and Constructive Feedback
You hired every team member at your organization for a reason. Your team is smart, capable, innovative, and driven to make an impact. But they are also human, and that means that mistakes are inevitable. As a leader, being able to navigate difficult conversations when they arise is essential. In this blog, we’ll explore how to prepare for those uncomfortable moments and turn them into opportunities for clarity, trust, and growth.
Why Leaders Avoid Difficult Conversations
You may tend to
avoid uncomfortable conversations in professional and personal life for many reasons. Fear of escalating the conflict, damaging relationships, losing respect from others, or a lack of communication skills may tempt you to remain silent. However, doing this in a leadership position opens the door for future problems and denies your team valuable learning opportunities.
The Power of Constructive Coaching
Before you can effectively give constructive feedback to your team, you need to reshape your perspective on what feedback is. By taking a
coaching leadership approach, you empower your team to hold themselves to a high standard. Every moment, both positive and negative, can be viewed as a learning opportunity through praise and constructive criticism. When done correctly, this makes your team feel more actively engaged in their role.
How to Navigate Constructive Feedback
Below is your guide to mastering difficult conversations in the workplace.
Set Expectations
Start by making it clear to your team what success looks like and
modeling the behavior you expect from others.
Preparing for the Conversation
Before you can have a meaningful discussion with someone on your team, you need to organize your thoughts. Take note of what the expectations in place were and what could have been done differently in the situation.
Lead With Empathy
This conversation should be a two-way street. Start by actively listening to the person or people involved in the discussion and try to see the situation from their point of view.
Structure the Feedback
How you structure your feedback may be dependent on your personality and your company’s culture, but it should be delivered in an organized way. Whether you verbalize or document constructive criticism, it may be helpful to lean on this moment in time as a learning curve. Explain exactly what went wrong and what could have gone better in a situation, so your team knows what you expect from them moving forward.
Navigate Emotional Reactions
In this situation, you may receive an
emotional reaction from members of your team during a difficult conversation. Expecting this beforehand can help you prepare yourself for that.
Find a Solution
Always end constructive feedback conversations with clearly agreed-upon action items.
Normalize Feedback
Make feedback discussions less daunting and build upon past conversations by making regular feedback part of your workplace routine. This allows you to check in with your team, monitor progress, and give praise when it’s earned.
Leadership Training for Difficult Conversations
What if you didn’t wait for something unexpected in the workplace to happen before you thought about how to navigate a tricky conversation? At Front Line Leadership, our training modules prepare leaders for real-world scenarios ahead of time with critical thinking exercises and problem-solving.
Learn more about our training modules today!
