We hired an HR and leadership consultant Anne Laguzza to speak to our Fit Body Elite Mastermind group a few weeks ago. There were many take-aways but her talk on “Crucial Conversations” was especially valuable.
What are Crucial Conversations you might ask?
There are tough conversations you don’t want to have. But ones that are needed in order to resolve any situation needing adjusting so the team can win.
Unfortunately and whether we like it or not, these are realities in business and in life.
In fact, the stronger the leader, the more willing they are to lean into crucial conversations which is a big leadership lesson for today. To add more value, here are the 7 steps for you to implement in your next crucial conversation so you have a framework as your guide.
- Embrace. Yes, embrace the suck. Reminder, these crucial conversations are not comfortable but important. Reframe these in your mind as an opportunity for you both to get better.
- Don’t Procrastinate. There’s a balance between letting emotion die down and being close enough to the incident as there’s value. Be conscious of this and lean in as soon as possible.
- Clarify Intention. Be clear in your intention for the conversation. Approach with facts, remove emotion and be objective.
- Preparation. Gather information. Data is mission critical to a productive crucial conversation.
- Active Listening. Be Present. What do they feel? Is there anything else I need to know?
- Come to a Resolution. Reach agreement. Summarize understanding and then detail out pending action steps.
- Follow up. As part of your pending action steps above, set a meeting time to follow up before you end the meeting. Then do it as the fortune is in the follow-up! Check-in with the teammate. Put any non-sensitive information in writing as a follow-up. Anything sensitive can be discussed at your follow up meeting instead of through email.
